Volume 2

Physiology for practical use / by various writers ; edited by James Hinton.

Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiology for practical use / by various writers ; edited by James Hinton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    pens, that Britain has for so many years been afflicted with continual plagues. He complains that the English have no regard to the aspect of their windows or doors, and that their rooms are so constructed as to be incapable of being ventilated. The streets, he adds, are covered with clay and rushes, which are so seldom removed that the covering sometimes remains for twenty years, and that beneath this covering is a layer of filth not fit to be mentioned; a most unwholesome vapour is exhaled from this. He adds, that it is his firm opinion that the island would become much more wholesome if the cham- bers were built so as to be exposed to the air on two or three sides, the glass windows being made to open. It would contribute also to health, he says, if more sparing diet was used and less salt provisions were con- sumed. Happily we can make a cheering comment on this remarkable letter. Drainage, ventilation, and the food of the people have, since the time of Erasmus, been immensely improved, although finality in these matters has not by any means been reached. The results have, however, been most gratifying, as the bills of mortality prove. Certain epidemics, in obedience to some un- known laws, at uncertain intervals still sweep over the land, despoiled of much of their power. But the plague has been long unknown amongst us; typhus is almost