First report of the commissioners : appointed to inquire whether any and what special means may be requisite for the improvement of the health of the metropolis, with minutes of evidence.

Great Britain. Metropolitan Sanitary Commission

Date:: 1848

Credit: First report of the commissioners : appointed to inquire whether any and what special means may be requisite for the improvement of the health of the metropolis, with minutes of evidence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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$No. i. About \d. for every two hours of washing, and, as before stated, ]d. for R.^Bowie, each bath. Surgeon. Would filtering the water not be a great improvement ?—It would ; as, the purer the water is, the less chance there would be of its containing- anything capable of producing soil or stain. In irritation of the skin, what substitute may be used for soap?-—I have generally found thin gruel an excellent substitute, and sometimes, especially where there are sores or wounds, nothing answers better for soap in shaving than good olive oil. What soaps are least irritating?—This will depend greatly upon the condition of the skin. I have seen the common yellow soap destroy the cuticle of the hands of washerwomen, while the mottled soap produced no such effect; and I have known where a troublesome, and long- continued eruption on the face, was always relieved, and nearly removed, by the use of coarse yellow soap. I suspect that many of the perfumed soaps, owing to the essential oils they contain, must often increase irritation. I am told that it may be given as a general rule, that the longer common soaps are kept they will become the milder. Will they have the greatest stimulating effect, during infancy, childhood, or adolescence?—During infancy and childhood. It is no unusual thing to be compelled to leave off using soap in the cutaneous eruptions of infancy and childhood, from the great irritation it excites. That it is capable of exciting considerable irritation is proved by the smarting it occasions when, by chance, it comes in contact with the surface of the eye, or when it gets up the nostrils. Among what class are the habits of cleanliness most easily promoted ? ■—Among the poor; for if encouraged they will eagerly avail themselves of opportunities of cleansing themselves, as is evidenced by the fact that 34,843 have bathed, &c, 38,445 washed and dried their clothes, and 11,296 ironed them during the second year of the free baths; and many hundreds have purified their dwellings by the gift of a little whitewash and the loan of pails and brushes. I have found that the young are more eager for bathing than those further advanced in life * and 1 have every reason to believe that the rising generation are acquiring a taste for bathing, sufficient to render it a necessary of life instead of one of the luxuries. Concerning the washing of clothes, I am of opinion that it might be accomplished without rubbing them in the usual manner, without beating them with machinery, and without any injurious chemical agent. An experiment which I purpose making this week will enable me to ascertain whether my conjecture be a correct one. No! 2. No. 2. Robert Little Hooper, Esq., Surgeon. RJ£gHooper' Where do you practise ?—In the London-road, in the parish of surgeon. St. George, Southwark, where I have been parish surgeon for nearly twenty years. I am assistant-surgeon to the Queen's Bench Prison ; I have also a large private practice in the neighbourhood, which is necessarily chiefly amongst the labouring classes, the population not being a rich one. You of course remember the visit of the cholera ?—Yes, I was$