Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly.

  • Jamaica. Central Board of Health
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    450/594 (page 140)
    9, crying evil. The sanitary condition of tlie city h more seriously aiiected and more permanently dam- niried by other causes than any yet brought under notice in the foregoinj;- pages, of which J shall shortly speak more at length, i have, in a cursory manner, liinted at the pits and cavaties discoverable in all di- rections, by the sides, and often in the mixidley of the raost popidous streets after heavy showers. I'hese are quickly tilled with water, in w hich swine are ac- customed to wallow and bask. Thev soon become stagnant pools, emitting foetid exhalations. These pools are found also in the yards of the miserable ho- vels in which the masses are chiefly domiciliated, and tills at once brings me to the immediate considera- tion of other sources bv wlvich the sanitarv state o£ the metropolis is more s.erioi.]sly damaged than any yet recorded, such sources of contamination as de-. iiiand immediate att^ention. I'he wretched, hovels, tenanted and occupied by the. masses, I maintain, present to our view the worst receptacles of filth and miasinata it is possible to con- ceive,, and such as no'iody can contemplate withoiU the most thorough disgust and alarm. These loath- some habitations are in the vrorst condilion one cai> imagine. They are not confmed. tp any particular quarter of the town, but are found, now a days, in all <iirectiDns, and are nothing move or less than pest- hGiz.sci:.''' The wails and floors are saturated with rain watery tiiat percolates tl,]rough the decayed roofs.— They keep them, generally closed and unventilated both niiiht and dav. In, verv many instances there ore no lloors,, so tiiat their inmates repose upon the damp earth., 3ncli is the condition and state of theis: clormiiories. Kow, in what ciroumstances do v,;e tind the^ ?/Yfrf;^5 of thes^ wretched dwellings? Soon after the town be.'^ame supplied witli w-ater by the compa- ny, tive washerwomen discontinued and left off the wasliing of clothes out of the city, as they were w ont to.do at I^vock Spring and elsewiiere, but now a days ti.j.cv carrv on this operation in their vards. Ihei^