Metropolitan workhouse infirmaries, &c. : Copy of the report of Dr. Edward Smith, Poor Law inspector and medical officer to the Poor Law Board, on the Metropolitan Workhouse infirmaries and sick wards / (Viscount Enfield).

  • Edward Smith
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Metropolitan workhouse infirmaries, &c. : Copy of the report of Dr. Edward Smith, Poor Law inspector and medical officer to the Poor Law Board, on the Metropolitan Workhouse infirmaries and sick wards / (Viscount Enfield). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Part ]l. It has been already shown that mere cubical space cannot altogether effect it, Gfneral but as it effects it much more certainly than a small space placed under similar Review and conditions, it is, when expense is not an object, a rough and ready way of suggestions, obtaining the result, and of partially putting aside, but not overcoming, a cliffi- Lulrical ami Floor culty- The condition of the bed-rooms of the middle classes do not by any Space. means approach theoretical perfection, but practically they are found to answer the two requirements of comfort and health, and it may be permitted to use this as a test of the salubrity of public rooms, or of rooms inhabited by several persons in common, and the requirements will then be that degree of deterioration of the air, and dilution of poisonous products, which will compare with those conditions in a fairly selected bed-room of the middle classes. The former, the deterioration of the air, can be determined only by chemical research, but the latter is in its earliest manifestation, as well as in its progressive increase, detected by the sense of smell, and may be more accurately estimated by the chemist. Such is an outline of the question which is now under discussion. It is not one to be settled by mere authority, by fixing upon some given space, by ad- ducing in support the names of men distinguished on other subjects, and by constant reiteration of the same before the public by those who themselves only repeat the opinions of others, and do not attempt to add anything by their own authority. In professional matters authority has now but little weight, and in scientific, and before scientific men, it has none. The only test admitted in science is that of fact,—of weight and measure. If one assert that a given space is needful in workhouses, before his authority can be accepted it must be known that he had visited workhouses, and by practical observation had obtained the requisite proof; and if it be shown that he was never inside a workhouse, or being there, had not taken other steps to obtain proofs than could be taken by one of no authority before the world (if such proofs were needed), his assertions could have no special weight as a matter of authority, and at the most could only be of value as they repeated the opinions of other and better informed persons. There can be no doubt that there has been the greatest indifference to these questions on the part of all classes, whether professional or otherwise. We have scarcely a public building, a church, chapel, concert room, theatre, prison cell or hospital ward, much less have we private buildings which are decently venti- lated, and even now architects plan and builders erect buildings, almost or entirely without reference to the subject. Nay, experiments have only been insti- tuted in reference to it within a few years, and even now those on the gigantic scale which are carried on at the Houses of Parliament are needed, and have not as yet settled the question. One cannot in the afternoon enter a prison cell, allowing 900 or 1,000 cubic feet of air to the inmate, and particularly if he have been engaged in labour in his cell, without perceiving the air to be offensive ; nor the wards of an hospital at night without perceiving the absence of fresh air; nay, in reference to the latter it is asserted by surgeons of repute, that surgical cases never do as well in hospital wards as in private houses, and that pycemia, hospital gangrene, and erysipelas result from the defective state of the wards. Even in reference to medical cases, it is not many years since nurses died of fever at Bartholomew’s Hospital, and much more recently fever has been rife at Westminster Hospital, and puerperal fever has prevailed in the lying-in wards of many hospitals. These results, so far as they are remediable at all, can be obviated, not by enlarged space alone, but by better ventilation— by the removal of the poison,—and so far as I am acquainted with the state of public buildings of all kinds, I venture to affirm that there are workhouses in the } country districts which in this respect far excel them all. The Poor Law Board, in order to lay down a rule for the erection of work- houses and for the proper care and treatment of the inmates, some years ago discussed the question of cubic space at great length, and obtained the opinion of eminent scientific medical men, and the results of the observation of their inspectors and other officials. In 1855 the question of the sufficiency of a minimum space of 300 cubic feet for each person in a dormitory, and of 500 cubic feet in a room used by day and night, was proposed to Dr. Todd, a gentleman who, although a physician of great eminence, was not only a practical physician, but a scientific man of a high order, and in the absence of conclusive scientific facts was., perhaps, the most
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