Report of the Health of London Association on the sanitary condition of the metropolis; : being a digest of the information contained in the replies returned to three thousand lists of queries, which were circulated amongst clergymen, medical men, solicitors, surveyors, architects, engineers, parochial officers, and the public.

  • Health of Towns Association (London, England)
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Health of London Association on the sanitary condition of the metropolis; : being a digest of the information contained in the replies returned to three thousand lists of queries, which were circulated amongst clergymen, medical men, solicitors, surveyors, architects, engineers, parochial officers, and the public. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    63/70 (page 61)
    BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES. [47.] The Legislature having passed an act to authorise municipal authorities and vestries to establish baths and wash-houses for the poor at very low rates of payment, are you of opinion that they should be brought into use in your locality without delay ? [48.] Would you recommend baths being intro- introduced into parish and union workhouses and hospitals—not as a remedial measure only, but to promote the health and cleanliness of the inmates ? [49.] Do you think that habits of uncleanliness are productive of demoralisation ? Question 47 has been very generally answered in the affirmative ; some persons, however, think public baths and wash-houses are but of secondary importance. A con¬ stant supply of water, at high pressure, in every poor man’s house, would go far to supersede the necessity of such establishments. Under existing circumstances, the establish¬ ing of public baths and wash-houses in districts is very generally admitted to be essential to the promotion of com¬ fort and cleanliness among the poor. It is justly remarked, that personal cleanliness leads to household cleanliness, and household cleanliness conduces to morality and domestic happiness. Any plan for improving the habits and adding to the cleanliness of the poor must be advantageous to the community, for dirty people are never moral or reli¬ gious. Dr. Timothy Dwight, an American theologian of a bygone generation, remarks, “ Neatness of dress, and de¬ cency of appearance, strongly persuade to softness and