The habitations of the industrial classes : their influence on the physical and on the social and moral condition of these classes, showing the necessity for legislative enactments : being an address, delivered at Crosby Hall, November 27th, 1850 / by Hector Gavin.

Hector Gavin

Date:: [1851]

Credit: The habitations of the industrial classes : their influence on the physical and on the social and moral condition of these classes, showing the necessity for legislative enactments : being an address, delivered at Crosby Hall, November 27th, 1850 / by Hector Gavin. 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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$]\Ir. Roberts, the honorary architect to the Society for Improving tlie Condition of the Labouring Classes, is earning for himself a world- wide reputation by his benevolent and practical exertions in this depart- ment of sanitaiy art; and the superintending inspectors attached to the General Board of Health have, in their Reports, given to the public a mass of information, the result of great consideration, observation, and judgment. The general measure demanded by the exigencies of society for the improvement of the physical condition of the industrial population may be stated to be— 1. The efficient and regular cleansing of the streets, lanes, courts, alleys, whether public or private. (As the facility of this cleansing depends on the proper paving of such places, the subject of paving necessarily requires to be considered.) 2. The regular removal of all solid house refuse by public arrange- ment without any direct charge whatever to the inhabitants, but with the infliction of a penalty if retained. 3. The constant and abundant supply of pure soft water. 4. Effective street and house drainage. 5. The conversion of unfit and dilapidated dwellings into dwellings fit for human habitation; and if that change be impracticable, their abandonment as dwellings, or their demolition. 6. A free supply of light and efficient ventilation. 7. Efficient regulations so as to prevent overcrowding of lodirin- houses, &c. 8. The suppression of nuisances. All these measures it is the bounden duty of the community to attend to, because no individual can, by himself, remedy the evils which result from their negleet. fc Mr. Rawlinson considers that the great remedies required are 1. A complete set of intercepting sewers. 2. The abolition of places for the retention of solid and fluid refuse, and the removal, at short intervals, of solid refuse. 3. The regulation of the arrangement and construction of cottages, so as to ensure light, ventilation, and health. Before entering upon the consideration of, or rather attempting to promulgate, any scheme for remedying the existing evils in relation to the dwellings of the labouring classes, it is necessary to advert to several matters of detail in relation to the circumstances and agencies which either lead to that condition, or which tend to prevent any improvement in it. It is also necessary to adduce sufficient evidence to disabuse certain portions of the public of great misconceptions of their interests and duties.$