The evolution of the function of public health administration : as illustrated by the sanitary history of Glasgow in the nineteenth century, and especially since 1854, with an exposition of results / by James B. Russell.

  • Russell, James Burn, 1837-1904.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The evolution of the function of public health administration : as illustrated by the sanitary history of Glasgow in the nineteenth century, and especially since 1854, with an exposition of results / by James B. Russell. 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.

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    they may put drains in them, to carry the water to the common sewer; they can compel the cleaning of the closes by the inhabi- tants themselves, which can be no difficult task, as almost every- where there is one, and sometimes two water-pipes in these places. I believe the flooding of the kennels in the closes once every day, and the removal of the multiplied nuisances with which they abound, would go further than is generally supposed in the prevention of contagion. 1837.—Dr. Cowan, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the University,'- Many of the causes of the production and propagation of Fever must be ascribed to the habits of our population; to the total want of cleanliness among the lower orders of the community; to the absence of ventilation in the more densely peopled districts; and to the accumulation, for weeks or months together, of filth of every description in our pviblic and private dunghills; to the over-crowded state of the lodging-houses resorted to by the lowest classes; and to many other circumstances unnecessary to mention. Before the Mimicipal Bill for Glasgow is presented to the Legislature, a well-digested system of medical police should be drawn up and incorporated with the other necessary enactments. Power should be vested in the police to enforce the daily removal of filth of every description. Public water-closets should be established, and every measure calculated to promote the general health rigidly enforced. * * * ^ * A few thousand pounds, judiciously expended in opening up the districts most densely populated, and in other obvious ways, would greatly tend to alleviate the pressure of our heaviest municipal tax—the 'fever tax.' 1838.—J. C. Symons, Assistant Commissioner on the Condition of Handloom Weavers. ^ These districts [the low districts of Glasgow] contain a motley population, consisting in almost all the lower branches of occupa- tion, but chiefly of a community Avhose sole means of subsistence consists in plunder and prostitution. Under the escort of that vigilant Officer, Captain Miller, the superintendent of the Glasgow police, I have four times visited these districts, once in the morning and three times at night; I have seen human degradation 1 Statistics of Fever and Small-pox iii Glasgow. Read to Statistical Society of Glasgow, 18.37. 2 Reports from Assistant Handloom Weavers Comniissioners Parlia- mentary Paper, issued 27tli March, 1839, > «