A manual of hygiene, public and private, and compendium of sanitary laws : for the information and guidance of public health authorities, officers of health, and sanitarians generally / by Charles A. Cameron.

Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of hygiene, public and private, and compendium of sanitary laws : for the information and guidance of public health authorities, officers of health, and sanitarians generally / by Charles A. Cameron. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The houses are too close together; there are either no yards or very small ones; the supply of water is defective—often from the want of vessels to store it in; and the rooms and passages, the furniture;clothes, and persons of the inmates are in a chronic state of filth. These sad tenements of humanity are the fever nests wherein are hatched the germs of many of the direst diseases that afflict mankind. In improving their condition, we are not per- formino- altogether unselfish labour ; for the virus of small-pox or of typhus spreads from the homes of the very poor and carries death into the mansions of the rich. The dwellings for the indus- trial classes erected in London through the princely munificence of the great philanthropist, Mr. Peabody, and the model lodging- houses built in various towns, now afford healthful, decent, and cheap dwellings for a large number of the working classes. Hospitals, barracks, and similar institutions are now generally constructed on proper sanitary principles. Formerly the converse was the rule, and the mortality withm their walls was conse- quently extremely high. During the first quarter of a century after the establishment of the Dublin Lymg-in Hospital, one out of every seven children born in it died. The cause of this pro- digious mortality was found to be the want of proper venti ation, and on remedying the defect the number of deaths immediately fell to one in 104. In the dormatories of workhouses and schools there still exist overcrowding and a want of proper ventilation ; but, as a general rule, the sanitary conditions of public institu- tions, where large numbers of people are lodged, are being steadily '™iriheatres, concert-rooms, and other buildings where large numbers of people congregate, the superficial space devoted to each person is rarely sufficient. It is quite possible to overcrowd a Tu ding which,^iaving the sky for its roof, affords to all withm its wall! unlimited cubic space for breathing in. If P-P]^ placed too close together, the most perfect appliances for ventila- tion will not prevent each of them from inspiring the foul air ex- pTred from his own and his neighbours' lungs. The owners or rs of all places of public resort should be compelled to pro- vide a^ate square as well as cubic space for each person. In Ae London lodging-houses the space of thirty superficial fee is allowed to each pefson, and in the section houses ot the Metro- poUran Police fi'fty superficial feet. In hospitals each patient <;hould have at least 100 square feet. %li?hstanding the high pnce of fuel, tl- was eful comb^^^^^ tion of that substance in open fire-places is preferab e to Is more economical use in close stoves. It was P«'-™«°^f^ly '^^^ 1 nnO cubic feet of air were transmitted every minute out ot a a g'e r^ot tough its open chimney. Open ^-P --^^^^^^^^^ fm-e ventilators of the most eff-ective kind. The back part ot t-'p^aces should be composed of fireclay and the metalhc par^ should be kept as bright as possible, in order to radiate the heat into the apartment.