Report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the causes which have led to, or have aggravated the late outbreak of cholera in the towns of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead, and Tynemouth.

Great Britain. Cholera Inquiry Commission.

Date:: 1854

Credit: Report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the causes which have led to, or have aggravated the late outbreak of cholera in the towns of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead, and Tynemouth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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$top nothing but a mere chink or rift for liglit and air to make their \vay through. 29. That, on entering some of the houses in such localities during our day- o. 400O. inspections of the town, we were arrested at the door by a darkness which was little less than total, aiul were obliged to wait a moment or two before we could sec sufficiently well to grope our way up the stairs; and that more than one of the parochial medical officers have spoken to the fact of their sometimes q labouring under the necessity of taking a candle, in order to sec their patients yo2i. P. in some of the rooms in these places, even at noonday in the height of summer. 3015, 0 J. 30. That the sanitary defects of such a character of house-construction (which can hardly have been otherwise than considerable, even when a sub- stantial burgher with his single I'amily occupied an entire house), arc frightfully aggravated now-a-days; when, owing to the removal of the Avealthier classes into the loftier and airier districts of the extending town, these lower and older parts liavc fallen almost exclusively into the occupation of the lower and lowest classes; and Avhen, over and above that the houses, many of them centuries old, have become miserably decayed and dilapidated, not only is almost every single 2092 2739. room throughout each house occupied by a separate family, but also many single q.s2,530-2 “>061 and small rooms serve as the only habitation for two or more entire families, or 2280-90, p’. 190.’ for a whole family and for several additional inmates, visitors or lodgers. (J. 2973-8, 3485. 31. That there arc other and considerable districts of Newcastle, in which, owing to the abniptncss with which the site of the town slopes down to the river or its tributaric.«, whole rows of houses arc built into or against the bank, so as to have the earth of the declivity above piled up against their back or side. Avails for a greater or less height, and so as to incur, in respect of so much of them at least, all the Avorst disadvantages of underground dAVcllings. 32. That the soil of the upjier and by far the greater part of the site of NcAvcastle consists of a thinnish stratum of strong loam or clay, irregularly veined Avith sand or graA'el, lying on a thick stratum of very impervious strong clay; that, owing to the A'cry general Avant of drainage in many districts, this soil is necessarily and habitually dam]); and that this dampness of the soil, aggravated in many instances by the infiltrations from the excessiA'e filth Avitli Avhich the surface of the ground is strewn, is absorbed into the brick and timber Avork of the houses, es])ecially of those built into and against the bank-side, until the Avails of many of them are permanent!}’ and habitually damp, and but too fre{]uently Avith Avorse than mere Avater. 33. That the report of the medical committee of the Newcastle and Gates- head Sanitary Association, made the ISth December, 18d9, after alluding to one of the most notorious of such localities, in Avhich, during three months of the epidemic of 1847, there had occurred 5 deaths and hU cases of fcA’cr among .5.^) inhabitants, proceeds to observe :—“ Nor Avas there any difficulty in dis- “ coA'cring the ]ihysical causes Avhich thus doomed the unfortunate inhabitants “ of these pest-houses to certain suffering, and the possible contingency of “ premature death; for being built in close contact Avith the earth forming the “ side of a steep bank, the Avails of these houses Averc necessarily and constantly “ imbued Avith moisture, Avhile a large collection of every species of tilth from “ piggeries and heaps, cVc., on the summit of the bank above, supplied a constant “ source of putrefying licpiid to mingle Avith the natural drainage Avater, and “ ooze Avith it into the porous Avails of the subjacent dAvellings. It is but proper “ to mention that, since the period of that A’isit, the Town Council Ihia'c “ enacted a byc-hiAV forbidding pigs to be kept Avithin thetoAvn; but the other “ evils remain unremedied, and are unfortunately but too common in all the low- “ lying parts of the toAvn—to AA’hich avc can only add, that many of the localities thus alluded to continued, until the time of our visits even, to exist in a state not materially altered from that in Avhich they are thus described to luiA e existed in 1847 and 1849; and that at the time of the late outbreak there Avere, Ave fear, but too many places to Avhich such a description Avas in a great degree ajiplicable. 34. That the far too frequent practice of building privies and ash-pits, Avherc such conveniences exist at all, against the Avails of houses, so as occasionally to allow of the liquid hlth oozing directly through the Avails into living and sleeping rooms, and so as habitually to bring these “ poison pits” directly alongside or below them or otherwise close to their doors and AvindoAVs, is another instance of b Q. 130-1,232-3, 4733-43, 4759, 3131-9. r. 42.278. 599-GOO, 3211- 3, 4171. Q. 1.13-42, r. 45, Q.OOl 4, 103.5-0,1302- 5, 3039, 3199, 3348, 4084, 4120, 4170, 4355, 4381, 4473, 4881-2, 5009. P. 40, bottom. P. 41. A. 1). 184’/ r. 15, 48, 178-9, 215-0, 277-8. Q. 295, 22.50. 2449, 2028, 2049, 2732, 2900-7, 30SV, 4150-8, 5019-20, 7552.$