Minutes of evidence given by C. J. B. Aldis.

  • Aldis, C. J. B. (Charles James Berridge), 1808-1872.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Minutes of evidence given by C. J. B. Aldis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    MINUTES OF EVIDENCE GIVEN BY C. J. B. ALDIS, M.D., Physician to the London, Farringdon, and Surrey Dispensaries. Ih what dispensaries have you acted as physician, and for what c.j. b. auiu, time? 1 am acting as physician to the London Dispensary, which receives patients from a great portion of Bethnal-green and Spitalfields. At that dispensaiy, where I have acted for five years, we have about 3000 cases annually. I am physician to the Farringdon Dispensary, where we receive patients chiefly within a radius of a mile from Skinner-street, Snow-hill, chiefly from the neighbourhood of Holborn, Smithfield, Clerkemvell, Fleet-street, and the Old Bailey: there they receive 5400. I act as physician to the Surrey Dispensary, where we receive pa- tients from two districts ; one, the eastern district, extending from London Bridge to Millpond Bridge; and the western from Lon- don to Vauxhall Bridge. The whole number at the Surrey Dis- pensary maybe about 7000. There are four physicians connected *ifh the Surrey Dispensary. In these different dispensaries do you, when necessary, visit the patients at their own habitations? Yes, we do. In what condition do you find the places of habitation which }°u visit? Generally one badly-conditioned room occupied ijv a whole family, badly ventilated and filthy. The greatest wercrowding is displayed in Field-lane and its neighbourhood, 'ft*16 cour^s leading out of Smithfield, in the courts leading out 0 Fetter-lane, and the courts and buildings leading out of Fleet- ^reet. , ®?me of the worst features of overcrowding are displayed on ^Surrey side of the river, in the neighbourhood of the Mint, ®?%wise the characteristics are common. Within the rooms *We offensive smells, the atmosphere quite vitiated, the faecal b