Sanitary reform : a lecture delivered at the Institution Room, St. Ives, on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 1860 / by Lord Robert Montagu.
- Montagu, Robert, 1825-1902.
- Date:
- 1860
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Sanitary reform : a lecture delivered at the Institution Room, St. Ives, on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 1860 / by Lord Robert Montagu. 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.
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![Out-door Trades in towns 1 85 London Police \ 89 Average of 24 large towns •].. 119 Average of Manchester 124 Household Cavalry \ Ill Dragoons \ 135 Infantry of the Line » 178 Foot Guards (who arc an guard only every 5tlt)ight) 204 —(Export of the Commission on the Sanitary ^te of the Army, p. xi., xii., XV.) Yoa see that these aristocratic reginiits, the Toot- guards, rejoice in having a night-guard every Stlnight only ; but their privilege is their bane ; for more of them di^u consequence. But that which I am proving will be still mor apparent from the following fact:— \ The mortality of the army when Jmtted before S(iastopol in 1856, as compared with that of troops in barracks at home^ras nearly one- third less than the mortality of the infantry of the lineand two-fifths less than that of the Foot Guards.—(Report of the;;ommissioners on the Sanitaiy Condition of the Army, p. xvi.) So that those miserable huts, about which the Times' irrespondent wrote, which were full of crannies and crevices, let in the wind and water, and snow and frost, were far more ?althy than barracks which excluded the elements. \ And again in the same Report we read, with rejj.>d to the troops in bairacks : ^ •' In considering the effect on health of the constant bredjng of a vitiated atmosphere in barracks, it must be borne in mit that 57 per cent of the deaths in the infantry of the line are caused I diseases of the respjratory organs; and of the guards no less thg 68 per cent. p. xvii. It has then been proved that a man may suffer expo^re, be badly clothed, and badly fed; he may even breathe bai^air at night; yet if he have plenty of labour in the open air, \ may save his health intact, and enjoy a long life, free from stness. While those, on the contrary, who enjoy every advantagevhich wealth and leisure can afford them will, if they have noirong exercise in the free air, suffer from maladies which will enitter their life, and will close their sorrows by an early death To show the evils of bad ventilation by an additional instani let us take the case of bakers ;— 1 Bakers work 18 to 20 hours a day in London; in rooms, under ground and badly ventilated. And we find that aitugh of Scavengers only 19 in every 100 f and of Carpenters I i • -.nr. i • , , ,1 and Bricklayers } ^^ '° ^^^''^ ^'^^ ^^ject to pulmcty diseases; yet of bakers 70 and even 80 per cent, are found suffflcr from these complaints. 1 We have seen the baneful effects of vitiated air, andlf impure water. The evil consequences of an insufficient supl of fresh air, have also been made ^apparent. There is one ml](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2227022x_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
