Epidemics considered with relation to their common nature, and to climate and civilization : in two lectures delivered at the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh, November 1855 / by Southwood Smith.

  • Thomas Southwood Smith
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epidemics considered with relation to their common nature, and to climate and civilization : in two lectures delivered at the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh, November 1855 / by Southwood Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and applying them as a test to Great Britain, we shall see that at the commencement of the 14th century England was in a state of barbarism, since every one of these elements was wanting, although the foundation of political and social insti- tutions containing the germs of liberty and progress had been already laid. Practically, however, at that period there was no sovereign authority, for the king had no sufficient power to naintain order, to protect the rights and liberties of the people, or to defend his own throne against armed men nominally his sub- jects ; while the lord of every feudal castle exercised a more perfect sovereignty over his vassals than the so-called monarch over the nation. Every town was a fortress, and every house in which it was safe to dwell a castle, the inmates of which, like people in a garrison, constantly held themselves prepared to resist attack, from which they were never secure. They slept with arms at their side. Marauders openly encamped on the public roads for the plunder of the wayfarer, which often ended in his murder. Few persons ventured to travel alone, and none without the reasonable apprehension that they might never return alive. Scarcely a third part of the area of the kingdom was under cultivation. The remainder consisted of moor, forest, and fen. Vast tracts were under water during the greater part of the year, and at other times formed morasses, marshes, and swamps. Immediately beyond the walls that encompassed the towns were large stagnant ditches, which being the nearest recep- tacles for refuse, were full of all sorts of decomposing filth. The streets were narrow, unpaved, undrained, uncleansed, and unlighted. There was no provision for the removal of the town refuse. Gutters were formed at the sides of the streets, as in Bethnal Green and the neglected parts of all our towns at the present time, into which the inhabitants threw the re- fuse of their houses ; forming in dry weather a semi-fluid mass of corrupting animal and vegetable matter, and in rainy
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