Reports on the sanitary state of the labouring classes, as affected chiefly by the situation and construction of their dwellings, in and about the metropolis.

Board of guardians

Date:: 1840

Credit: Reports on the sanitary state of the labouring classes, as affected chiefly by the situation and construction of their dwellings, in and about the metropolis. 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.

8/60 (page 6)

$Ml^ Taylor, out-floor surgeon . . . 256 cases Mr. Goodwin, ditto 13(j Mr. Agor, house surgeon . .] , \ 129 Total . . . ' 521 The cost of in-door cases is at least 5*. weekly, averaging 20s. for each case beiore the patient is sufBcienily recovered. Twenty-six cases were admitted into the London Fever Hospital at the cost of 271. 6s. to the parish for the last quarter, in addition to the number above reported. It is stated that the number of fever cases which have been attended by the medical officers in the parish of Whitechapel, within one year, is upwards of 2000 All the evidence is strongly expressive of the want of immediate legislative measures to check the evil, against which the Boards of Guardians have made such exertions as were within their power. The guardians of Camberwell state that they have made representations to the Commissioners of Sewers, from which we extract the following, of the date of the 18th ultimo:— They, the guardians, beg to represent that a proper drainage is extremely essential to a great part of this parish, on account of its exceedingly low level, while it is comparatively easy of attainment by reason of the gravelly nature of its' soil. They beg to remind the Commissioners that an attempt to drain the village of Peckham was made some years since, but this drain has been left in an unfinished and imperfect state, and the guardians wish to impress on the Commissioners the necessity of its immediate completion. The guardians have been given to understand that this completion has been hitherto delayed by the want of funds; but they cannot admit this to be a valid excuse, when it consists with their own knowledge that a great number of the inhabitants are rated to the sewers, which, as far as they, the inhabitants, are concerned, have no existence, and from which, of course, they can derive no benefit. The guardians, therefore, earnestly request the Commissioners to take this ■matter into their immediate and most serious consideration ; and they press it more earnestly at the present time, because, in addition to the ordinary nuisances, the pond on the Green, which is situate in the very heart of the village, has, ever since the frost, sent forth such a terrible effluvia, as to render the front rooms of the houses around it scarcely habitable, and to fill the whole neighbourhood with alarm at the probable consequences when the hot weather shall arrive. Mr. Bowling, a medical officer of the Kensington Union, states,— We have always had, at certain seasons of the year, fever prevailing to a great extent among the poor, attributable in a great measure to miasma, produced by a quantity of water which had been left stagnant on the surfiice of the earth after brickmaking, and which, in process of time, had become full of vegetable matter. Some years ago this evil had become so alarming, that the inhabitants, inlluenced by the respectable medical men in the neighbourhood, agreed to adopt measures for improving the drainage, and the parish expended considerable sums in so doing; but we have still several places, inhabited by paupers, without any drainage at all, or what there is so very insufficient that a great quantity of filth of all descriptions is constantly lying on the surface. It appears, by the register of sickness and mortality, that we have had 104 cases of fever from the 29th of September to the 25th of March, and the greater part of these are certainly to be attributed to causes that might be removed by improved drainage or greater cleanliness. Those are independent of small-pox and other diseases, the malignancy of which must be increased by the above cir- cumstances. I Mr. WagstafTe, one of the medical officers of Lambeth, represents that not only till! oxistencc of diseuHc, hut of purticular disGaso8, iiiuy be inferred from obvious physical and rcmovoiiblo cutisos :— I$