Sanatory inquiry - towns in Scotland : report on the sanatory condition of the Old Town of Edinburgh / made to the Poor Law Commissioners by William Chambers.

  • William Chambers
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sanatory inquiry - towns in Scotland : report on the sanatory condition of the Old Town of Edinburgh / made to the Poor Law Commissioners by William Chambers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    numbeis of human beings are crowded tojjether, inadequatuly supplied with the iifcessaries of life and totally regardless of hat^its of cleanliness, both in their person's and houses. As instances of suuh localities, 1 would mention the closes ] of the Ili^h Street and Canoni;ate, the Pleasance, West Port, Grass Market, St. Leonard's Street, the Cross-causeway and some parts of the Causewayside. ' It is a matter of the {greatest difficulty to arrest the progress of fever in these situations, even by the most active measures, and I have observed that the atten- dants on fever cases under such circumstances rarely escape being infected, while at the same time it is melancholy to reflect how many of them have been cut off. During the last three years, four young men, two of them apprentices of mine, and the others my pupils at the dispensary, were attacked with fever wht^n at- I tending poor cases in Siime of the locaHties I have mentioned above ; two out of ' the four died. • It is well known, on the contrary that when proper precautions are adopted, ' fever may in a great measure be prevented from spreading among the dwellings ' of the rich, and that there the medical attendant has little dread of infection. Da you imagine that the filthy condition of the places ymi mention influences I the state of health ?—1 am of opinion that filth and bad ventilation in any locality i tend to propagate fever when once originated there, but I do not consider them ' adequate to its production. I agree with Dr. Alison and many other physicians. I in thinking that deficient nourishment, want of employment, and privations of' all kinds, and the consequent mental depression if not of themselves adequate to 1 produce the continued fever of Edinburgh, are much more powerful than any cause external to the human body itself in diffusing it. What do you propose as a remedy ?—The only effectual, and I should think at the: same time, practicable means, would be to better the state of the poor in respect : of nourishment and clothing, to improve the state of their houses, by ventilating; the localities in which they are situated, and repairing the houses themselves.. Supplying them with abundance of water, and providing them with water-closets,, and by the discontinuance of fetid irrigations and any other nuisance generating^ malaria either in the town or its neighbourhood. I subjoin a few notes of two cases of destitution, which have come to my kno A-- ledge within the last few days,— 1st, W. B., aged 76, residing in the Lawn Market, has lived twenty years in-. Edinburgh, chiefly in the Greyfriars' parish. For the last twelve years he has> supported himself by selling fruit about the streets. He had an attack of palsy, in the beginning of this year, wJien a patient in the Royal InfirnnuT. Since; February, when he left the institution in a very shattered state of health, he has> occasionally attempted to resume his former means of support, but the want of. money has precluded him from making any purchases but tho.se of the m;»stt trifling kind. In order to raise money he some weeks ago pawned a coat (hiss Sunday one for nine years) for 2s., but he has not been able to redeem it. This man has an allowance of 5*. in six weeks from the parish, but he has yet', only received one payment. The rent of his house is £2 jjer annum, so that the. parish allowance will be absorbed in paying that sum. He has been confined to. bed fur the last fortnight, with chronic diarrhoea, and is so weak from this cause, and the remains of his paralytic attack, that having occasion to leave his bed. some days since, he was unable to return, but fell upon the floor and lay there^ until his daughter arrived some hours after to his assistance. The account which he gives of his poverty is truly heartrending. During the eight days prccedina. last Saturday, he had not the slightest means of supporting life, and had it not; been lor the kindness of some poor neighbours he must have died of starvationj He informed the narrator of this case, that on one day the whole sustenance he. could procure was a halfpenny worth of bread. The same individual, when calling on Saturday last, about one o'clock p.m., found that this man had not tasted bread that day, and the first supply expected was from the Destitute Sick Society, to whom application had been made. It may be mentioned that the visitor from the society called in the afternoon, and left 1*. 6c/., but assured the old man, that no further supply could be granted.