A letter on the sanitary condition of the troops in the neighborhood of Boston, addressed to his excellency the governor of Massachusetts / by S. G. Howe ; printed by request of the Advisory Committee.

  • Howe, S. G. (Samuel Gridley), 1801-1876.
Date:
1861
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter on the sanitary condition of the troops in the neighborhood of Boston, addressed to his excellency the governor of Massachusetts / by S. G. Howe ; printed by request of the Advisory Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    recommends that each soldier be allowed in his barracks a space contain- ing at least 600 cubic feet of air. A room to contain this should be 10 feet square by 6 feet high. If the ceiling is higher, of course the superficial dimensions may be less ; but it will not do to carry this too far, for we run against a law which seems to require that every human being shall have lateral room and verge enough in order to be healthy. If you raise the ceiling to 10 feet, you may reduce the floor space to 10 feet by 6, but you cannot by raising it 20 feet reduce the floor space to 10 feet by 3 without detriment to the health of the sleepers ; and if they are forced to lie in close contact, no height what- ever, though it be of the whole heaven, will prevent contamination of the atmosphere, and injury by other means besides. With these principles in view, let us look at the lodgings provided for our volunteers. At Forts Warren and Independence some of the men lodge in casemates, some in tents. The casemates are, of course, damp in most weathers, and fires have to be kept up, even in summer, to make them less unwholesome. The following table shows the measurement of these rooms, at Fort Independence, with the number of men occupying them in the latter part of June. No. of Length of room. Width. Height. Floor surface. Cubic space. lodgers. Total. To each man. Total. To each man. Feet. Feet. Feet. Feet. Feet. Feet. Feet. 16 25 13i \% 344^ 12i 3,614 226 16 18 1-6 14 11 2541 16 2,897 181 12 14f 14i 11 2121 17f 2,339 195 12 14J 14i 11 212J 17f 2,339 195 11 MJ 14J 11 212f 19i 2,339 212 14 14J 141 11 212f 15 1-6 2,339 167 21 23 17 13 391 181 5,083 242 17 23 17 13 391 23 5,083 299 18 23 17 13 391 21| 5,083 282 18 22 18 13 414 23 5,382 299 14 IS Hi 13 204 14 4-7 2,652 189 3-7 16 18 lU 13 204 12f 2,652 185* 22 18 \^ 11 300 13 7-11 15 51-59 401 3,300 45,102 31,538 150 236 3,744i 190 88 27.6 13 60 2,426 5251 Here the maximum cubic space of air to each man is less than one- half the minimum recommended by the British Sanitary Commission. The floor space was still more cramped, being less than 16 feet upon an average, and in one room less than 13 feet to a man. This allows