Volume 1

First [-Second] report of the Commissioners for inquiring into the state of large towns and populous districts.

  • Great Britain. Commissioners for Inquiring into the State of Large Towns and Populous Districts
Date:
1844[-1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First [-Second] report of the Commissioners for inquiring into the state of large towns and populous districts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Course of inquiry ^^Q havG clij-ectecl oiu' iiiquiries into the evils attendant 111 respect to . . ^ . overcrowding gn tliB over-crovvcling ot dwellings, and on the had con- ami (lefectivo C3 D' ventilation.. struction and imperfect ventilation of nouses, and the defective regulations for the width of courts, alleys, and j streets, causes which are represented as contributing largely ' to the extension of disease. The evidence collected exhibits the great benefits derived from the introduction of ventilation, at an expense compa- \ratively inconsiderable. Dr. Arnott^ explains the means which he has devised for that purpose, and which he re- presents to be cheap, simple, and efficient. Mr. Toynbee^ instances the successful application of one of those means to some of the over-crowded rooms, occupied both by artisans and by persons of the poorer class in the metro- polis. The evidence of Dr. Rigby,'' already referred to, shows the importance of ventilation in rendering suc- cessful other means taken to prevent the recurrence of severe epidemics in the hospital to which he is attached. Dr. Guy^ furnishes examples of the improvement in the health of workmen, that may be anticipated from the in- troduction of ventilation to all workshops, in which large numbers are crowded, or in which processes are carried on injurious to health. / Measures of external ventilation, by arrangements for the proper width and direction of streets, open an extended -v^eld of inquiry. Mr. H. Austin, architect,^ presents an instance where better arrangements of houses now formed into courts, alleys, and streets, Avould secure a superior ventilation and atTord a good return for the outlay. Course of inauiry Buildcrs of tlic humblcr as well as of the higher class as to tlie greatest . , . . , •, • J j cconomy^vrac-^ of teneiiients, state m their evidence losses incurred, and lor'sanarory im- injuries donc to thc inhabitants, and to the property, by piovement. ^^^^ buildiug of houses at wrong levels, which might have been obviated had there been an authentic survey, with the proper levels laid down, to which they could have had access. These witnesses have attested the utility of ] pre-arranged lines of drainage, as guiding the direction of ' new buildings, where no other circumstance governs their disposition. 1 Vol. i., p. 57. 2 Vol. i., p. 77. ^ Vol. i., p. 119. * Vol. i., p. 100. « Vol. ii, p. 357.
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