An examination of the statements contained in the papers relating to the fetid irrigations around the city of Edinburgh ... / [William Tait].

  • Tait, William.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An examination of the statements contained in the papers relating to the fetid irrigations around the city of Edinburgh ... / [William Tait]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    does not follow that one drop will produce any bad or deleterious effect. But between the highly poisonous gas to which he alludes, and the effluvia arising from the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter, there is no analogy. The one is known from its uniform effects to be hurtful to life when inspired,—the other has been shown to be compara¬ tively harmless; they are totally different in their nature, and as different in their effects. Dr Reid, however, goe3 on the supposition, that its effects on the constitution are so slow and gradual, that they do not for some time become apparent, but that it must tend to injure the health of the population ; he and Dr S. Alison of Tranent differing in opinion from the others (even from himself) on their side of the question, who contend that it is no argument against the insalubrity of these Irrigated Lands, that individuals, long resident in their neighbourhood, live long and enjoy good health, that they become inured to its effects, while strangers would suffer from its influence. Experience, moreover, tells us that it does not either in small or large quantities produce any bad effect on the human body. There is no “ listlessness, languor, and debility no “ chronic inflammation and swelling of different internal organs, especially of the liver, spleen, and mesenteric glands, with the consequent diseases of partial or general dropsy, jaundice, loss of appetite, and gra¬ dual wasting away” amongst the inhabitants on the banks of the “ foul burn.” They all appear to thrive well; to eat and sleep well, and take no little pride in boasting of the salubrity of their situation. Mr Oliver of Loehend keeps several men constantly employed during several months in summer, in removing the sediment deposited in the tanks on the a fou] burn and so far as his knowledge extends, not one of them, although generally up to the knees in the mud for ten hours a-day has suffered the least inconvenience from their filthy occupation. And for a specimen or picture of good health in ripe old age, we beg to refer Dr D. B. Reid to Alexander Lawson, who was employed in clearing the tanks and watering the meadow’s for a great part of his life, and retired from this employment only lately in consequence of old age, and not from any chronic disease caused by tin* unhealthy nature of' his vocation. The ex¬ tracts from the Records of the Burying Ground at Uestub ig, showing the ages of those who had resided fora part of their lives in that village, and