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
Licence: Public Domain Mark
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 King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
50/460 page 30
![Cholera Hospitals only to he resorted to Mr. WagstafFe* says—■ It is certain that the disease proved more fatal in those hospitals than in private houses, however poor. Dr. Wright f is asked— What was the result of your observation as to the beneficial result of the cholera hospital ?—We had a very efficient staff; that is, very efficient comparatively; we had the means of giving much greater atteniion to the cases than the poor could have received at their own houses; and I certainly think some degree of benefit was experienced by this alteration. I should, however, deprecate the removal of a person in cholera in the stage of collapse ; and, indeed, unless in cases of extreme destitution, I think they would have a better chance of recovering if treated at their own houses. Little advantage can be expected from a measure of relief to which the classes who are to be benefited have a decided aversion; and it is certain that the poor entered these hospitals with reluct- ance and regarded theai with a degree of terror which must have greatly diminished their chance of doing good. Mr. WagstafFe * says— They were very unwiUing indeed to go. Dr. Wright f states— They said they were going there to be slaughtered. Mr. Hooper I says— In consequence of the number of deaths that took place there the hospital obtained a bad reputation, and many positively refused to go. Still the hospital was generally full, partly from those who were quite destitute of friends, and partly from those who were sent there by fami- lies that were afraid of contagion. But they had ao faith in the ciiolera hospital, and entered it with the greatest reluctance. My colleague and myself, who were attached to this hospital, lost nearly all our practice at the time, for the poor said we killed them, and the better classes were afraid-we should kill them by contagion. On the other hand the same witnesses express a decided opinion that these very classes would willingly co-operate iu carrying out the essential measures of prevention. Mr. Hooper]; is asked— Do you think the description of persons who now live in those places, and who would probably become the first victims of cholera, should it again visit the metropolis, would appreciate the value of these means of prevention?—I am persuaded the great majority of them would. The persons who reside in the streets and courts in your district appear to be among those that live in a state of the greatest filth and wretchedness to be found in the metropolis. Do you think that even those persons would avail themselves of the means of greater cleanli- ness, if they were afforded them ?—I think tliey would to a very consi- derable extent. I think the fault is not in the people, so much as in their want of means.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21296935_0050.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
