Observations on the construction of healthy dwellings : namely houses, hospitals, barracks, asylums, etc. / by Sir Douglas Galton.

  • Galton, Douglas, Sir, 1822-1899.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the construction of healthy dwellings : namely houses, hospitals, barracks, asylums, etc. / by Sir Douglas Galton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    diately above the marshy plain of the Mitidja, and has mountain ranges behind it. It was first occupied in 1^44, and in the succeeding year half the population was swept away by fevers and dysentery. During the first 20 years the mortality was 10 per cent. The surrounding marsh has been cultivated, and there are now upwards of ]o square miles round the town under cultivation, producing cereals, cotton, tobacco, and wine. The cultivation consists of ploughing and trenching com- bined with irrigation, so that water in excess is not applied. The mortality now is only 20 per 1000. In India, wherever water is applied in excess for irrigation, so as to become stagnated in the subsoil, ague, spleen dis- ease and fever prevail. But it is possible to improve such localities by draining away the superfluous stagnant subsoil water. In the northern Doab districts in the North-West Provinces of India a great diminution of the excessive fever mortality for which these districts were noted has followed the extension of drainage works, by which the water which formerly stag- nated on and in the land is now led away by continuously flowing streams. But it is not sufficient to make the drains. All drainage cuts are liable to become injured, if open, by vegetation, and in all cases by decay, by atmospheric causes and other means. If not properly maintained and cleared out, the evils they are created to remove will recur. For instance, at Bona, from which, as already mentioned, in consequence of drainage works the fever disappeared. The drains were left to atmospheric influences; they be- came partially obstructed and irregular, and did not allow the water to reach the outfall; the result was a violent outbreak of fever at Bona attended with great loss of life both civil and military, an enquiry took place, the drainage was rectified, and since then Bona has been healthy.
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