Health lectures for the people : delivered in Edinburgh during the winter of 1880-81.

Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health lectures for the people : delivered in Edinburgh during the winter of 1880-81. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    257/454 (page 11)
    right than to his own health; and wherever alterations or oiDera- tions are proposed, that would infringe upon this, which is every man's property and the poor man's sole capital, is it not fitting that these alterations should be controlled by sanitary legislation 1 The rights of property of some men when examined turn out to be wrongs to the property of others. It seems fair in most cases that landlords' existing rights of property in towns should only be touched by improvement schemes that give compensation. But has any man a right of new to crowd buildings upon the ground to such an extent as to shut out light and air, and give him double feu-duty, at the expense of the health of the residents 1 Is not the additional feu-duty that is derived from buildings erected in addition to those allowed by Sanitary Science, so much money taken out of the pockets of the community, and an injury to the property of others 1 Am I not injured, if, to give excessive feu-duty to a landlord, my neighbour is so crowded as to fall sick 1 Am I not inj ured Avheu I am deprived of his services] Am I not injured when I support him in the Infirmary? Am I not injured when I support him in the Poorhouse 1 Am I not injured when I support his sons in Eeformatories and Prisons 1 And am I not injured when his daughters, instead of being a source of purity and strength to the community, become a cause of weakness and decay 1 Let us have the allowable density of buildings fixed by enactment at a standard compatible with health, and then a fair rent is found by competition. Compensation.—But is compensation not required and due 1 I say, wherever it is due, by all means let it be paid; but first make sure by whom it is due. To illustrate this, I shall quote from a paper by Dr. Eussell of Glasgow upon a case where com- pensation was demanded, consequent upon alterations ordered by the sheriff to correspondingly improve the ventilation of a build- ing, in which the population had been trebled by subdividing it into single-room dwellings. These alterations spoiled six apart- ments renting altogether at £27. Dr Eussell says :— Much emphasis was laid by the respondent upon the fact that the destruction of those six single apartments was a loss of rental amounting to £27 per annum, the houses being let at £4, 10s. each. This was designated an unwarrantable confis-