Extracts from the evidence given before a select committee of the House of Commons on the health of towns / by George Alfred Walker.

  • George Alfred Walker
Date:
[1841]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Extracts from the evidence given before a select committee of the House of Commons on the health of towns / by George Alfred Walker. 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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    examined it, and found the pipe was about four inches and a half in the bore, and in a most wretched state. 3152. Then do you attribute ihe illness to this cause?—I do; but I shoiUd say that has since been amended ; I was there two or three days ago. 3153. Is there any other point you can direct the attention of the Committee to, connected with this inquiry ?—I think the proximity of the cabinets d'aisance to the water-butt is a great cause of disease, because these gases pass off, and then they become absorbed to a cer- tain extent. 1 would also beg to state in general terms that the mortality in Clement's-lane has been very great. 3154. Can you state what it is in reference to the population?— Yes, at a rough guess I think there are 70 houses, and giving 10 per- sons to each house, that would be 700 persons, and the mortalily has been four per cent, from fever of various grades. There were 41 deaths within 18 months. 3155. That is one in 25, is it not?—Yes; the mortality in this par- ticular lane equals that of tho' worst district in London, the White- chapel, and that is calculated from all the causes of death put together. 3156. Independently of the deaths caused by fever, were there not also in that district many cases of persons whose health was in- jiu'ed, ar.d whose forces and pov\ers for industrious purposes were very much lessened, in consequence of the iever?—Most unquestionably; and I have no doubt that a vastportion of the poverty and destitution that exists arises from the combined operation of many causes of disease, that rmder a good system of medical police would not be per- mitted to exist. 3157. Does the practice of drinking ardent spirits prevail much in those low districts ?—It does ; and that is one point I would wish to touch upon: many persons take stimuli from various causes, and one vastly exciting cause is the condition of the air they breathe. 3158. Do you not conceive that in the neglected localities }>ou have spoken to, in which dirt and disease prevail so much, that these poorer classes frequently fly to spirits as a temporary resource and refuge as it were from the evils around them?—Yes, constantly. They are smitten by an invisible agent, the bad air they breathe; there is no question that that is one vast cause. 3159. Then these neglected points to which the Committee have adverted, is in one respect the cause of their spirit drinking, and then the spirit drinking becomes in its turn a cause of disease and neglect? —Unquestionably. 3160. Mr. Cowper. '] Do you mean that the infected atmosphere has a depressing effect upon the people subjected to its influence? —Yes; it involves the necessity of taking something as a stimulant. 3161. Chairman.'] These neglected districts have among them a great number of children, have ihey not?—A very great number. 3162. Are there any schools there?—There are. 3163. For the younger children?—Yes. 3164. Are there any play-grounds appendant to those schools? —Not one of them has a play-ground; that is a sad piece of infer- formation I am sorry to give. , -, , ^ c 3165. Is it not almost absolutely necessary to the developement ot their strength and the spirit and energies of youth, that they should
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