Report to the Right Hon. Lord Panmure, G.C.B., &c., Minister at War, of the proceedings of the Sanitary Commission dispatched to the seat of war in the East, 1855-56 / presented to both Houses of Parliament, by command of Her Majesty, March 1857.

  • United Kingdom. Sanitary Commission (1855-1856)
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the Right Hon. Lord Panmure, G.C.B., &c., Minister at War, of the proceedings of the Sanitary Commission dispatched to the seat of war in the East, 1855-56 / presented to both Houses of Parliament, by command of Her Majesty, March 1857. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    111/350 page 87
    caves. Some of the windows were double glazed. The fire- places were low, and the flues small. In many situations tlie foundations of the house had been dug out of the hill side, so that the earth came up several feet against the back walls, rendering the lower flats damp and unwholesome. The subsoil moisture in these houses rose by capillary attraction above the level of the ground, and showed its presence very decidedly on the lime-washed walls, a sure sign of an unwholesome house. Much sickness, chiefly fevers, originated in these houses after the occupation. Five or six cases Avere taken out of the basement of one of them. More mischief from this cause would have been pro- duced during the summer and autumn of 1855, had many of the houses not been pulled down by Lieutenant-Colonel Harding the Commandant, and huts erected in their stead. Besides these local sanitary defects, incident to the town before its occupation, other causes of disease came into existence as soon as it was taken possession of by our troops. The harbour became filled with shipping. Every available accommodation within the town was crowded with inhabitants. There were stables and other places for a large number of horses and cattle. A considerable number of Turkish and Croat labourers were located in the town and in its immediate vicinity. Many thousands of men and a large number of animals came into and left the town every day on the service of the army. And for all this increase of population and traffic there were no adequate cleansing or other sanitary measures provided. The consequence was, that putrescent organic matter accumulated in the very places where it was ]nost likely to do harm. Had there been any road past the cliff's leading out to the sea, it would have been comparatively easy to have removed the whole town refuse, and to have turned it into the water at a distance; but, unfortunately, there was no such road. It might have been removed in large boats or barges, as it subsequently was, but there were none until later date, when one or two large Eussian barges Avcrc obtamed. There were neither suitable roads nor means of transport to have removed the manure to a distance mland, and, instead of leaving it among the houses
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3