On the health of nightmen, scavengers, and dustmen / by William Augustus Guy.
- Date:
- [1848]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the health of nightmen, scavengers, and dustmen / by William Augustus Guy. 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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![On the Health of Nightmen, Scavengers, and Dustmen. By William Augustus Guy, M.B., Cantab.; Professor of Forensic Medicine, King’s College, London; Physician to_ King’s College Hospital; Honorary Secretary to the Statistical Society, iyc. [Read before the Statistical Society of London, 21st February, 1848.] I was induced to enter on the inquiry indicated by the title of this communication in consequence of an application made to me by the owner of a laystall, indicted as a nuisance, that I would examine the effect on the health of the neighbourhood of the laystall in question. The examination of the health of nightmen, scavengers, and dustmen, the results of which I now propose to lay before the Society, grew out of this local inquiry. As in all scientific investigations, much depends upon the absence of any decided bias in the mind of the observer; it may be well to premise that a careful examination of the evidence laid before the Health of Towns’ Commission in reference to the health of nightmen and of men working in the sewers of London, had left me in a state of uncertainty as to the real effect of this class of occupations upon health—a state not unfavourable to the discovery of truth*. In refer- ence to the several subjects of the inquiry, it may also be desirable to state, that they were in no way prepared for the questions put to them, either by previous notice of my intended visit, or by any preliminary observations calculated to affect their answers to my queries. The mode of procedure was as nearly as possible the same in all cases, and such as I deemed most likely to elicit the real truth. With a view of collecting the facts relating directly to the health of the men employed, in one way or other, in laystalls, whether as nightmen, scavengers, dungmen, dustmen, or hillmen, I visited and inspected eleven laystalls, being nearly one-half of the number existing in the metropolis. For the facts relating to the health of bricklayers’ labourers, I am indebted to Mr. Baker, who gave me facilities for personally inspecting the men employed on the works of the British Museum, and for those bearing on the health of brickmakers, to Mr. Dodd, the well-known dust contractor. My first inquiries were directed to the health of the men employed in the laystalls; and as it was necessary to compare them with some standard, I selected the bricklayers’ labourers as most likely to answer that purpose. When, however, I came to examine the latter class of metj, I found that they differed from the objects of my inquiry in a point which seemed by no means unimportant—the large majority are Irish, while an equal proportion of the men who work in laystalls are English. It was this circumstance which induced me to visit the brickfields, as I was given to understand that I should there meet with a class of men consisting, with very rare exceptions, of Englishmen, and, for that reason, furnishing a more just standard of comparison; * See “Ranking’s Half-yearly Abstract of the Medical Sciences,” vol. IV., p. 417, where, in reference to the men working in the sewers, I express the opinion that we are bound to suspend our judgment “ till a more extended inquiry, and an accurate comparison with some healthy standard of out-door occupation shall have been instituted.” A](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21954598_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
