An historic sketch of the causes, progress, extent, and mortality of the contagious fever epidemic in Ireland during the years 1817, 1818, and 1819 ... / by William Harty.

Date:: 1820

Credit: An historic sketch of the causes, progress, extent, and mortality of the contagious fever epidemic in Ireland during the years 1817, 1818, and 1819 ... / by William Harty. 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.

93/586 page 53

$appeared, or wherein, from the neglect of cleanh'ness and ^he density of the population, its appearance might be apprehended ; and they were at the same time instructed to order the whitewashing of the rooms of tlie infected and the removal of filth from the habitations of such as were unwilling or unable remove it at tlieir own expense,* * Dr. Cheyne would seem to be of opinion that those depots cf filth contributed but little to tlie generation or propagation of fever : in vol. •2, page 41, of the Dublin Hospital Reports, he observes, that the Liberties of Dublin, at the time these operations commenced, contained in the private courts or areas behind the houses, innumerable depots of putiid animal and vegetable matter, which had apparently produced no veri/ nijurious effect upon the health of the inhabitants ; it is certain that the Liberties yielded us very few cases of Fever during the summer of J 817.—Could Dr. Cheyne be ignorant that the inhabitants of the Liberties did always most naturally prefer Cork-st. hospital, lying in their own immediate neighbourhood, to the House of Industry, which was remote and on the opposite side of the river, and that they scujccly ever resorted to the latter imtil the year 1818, when tliey could no longer find *ufficievit accommo- dation in the former. That the reader may know the actual state of the liberties of Dublin, and tlience judge whether these depots cf filth could produce no very injurious effect on the licalth of the iiiiiabit^nts, I subjoin an accurate and faitliful picture of that part of the ]\Ie- tropolis, drawn in ISCJ by the able pen of the benevolent Vicar of one of its most extensive parishes; and in adding my testimony to the truth of his statements, I cannot but experience some painful sensations under the melancholy conviction tiiat this great and beautiful city, while it has been daily impioving in external magnificence, such as must surprise and delight the eye of a stranger, has at the same time been liourly adding to its internal misery and wretchedness, and retrograding in those things which tend to ameliorate the state of its labouring poor. To the truth of this last assertion I know but of one exception, aiid tlrat consists in the recent establishment of an association for the suppression of mendicity : that Institution, however, can only be viewed as a great good, originating in the enormous magnitude of a previous evil. The Rev. James Whitelaw, in his essay on tlie population of Dublin, states, that in the ancient parts of this city, a great proportion of the streets, with their numerous lanes and alleys, are occupied by working I {2 \ I \$