On sanitary legislation and administration in England : an address, portions of which were read before the Public-Health Department of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, at its Inaugural Meeting, held at Birmingham, in October 1857 / by Henry Wyldbore Rumsey.

  • Henry Wyldbore Rumsey
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On sanitary legislation and administration in England : an address, portions of which were read before the Public-Health Department of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, at its Inaugural Meeting, held at Birmingham, in October 1857 / by Henry Wyldbore Rumsey. 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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    on the rapid increase of these town populations from rural immigration, and the mushroom growth of an inferior kind of dwellings, in neglected suburban districts. For, externally to our limited sanitary jurisdictions, lie belts of border land, beyond the reach of municipal rule, and defying the interference of rural magistrates and guardians,— refuges alike for the outlaws of urban civilization, and for the nomads of the country, and therefore tempting fields for the wild speculation of unscrupulous builders. I need not attempt to describe the miserable state of this debateable ground. My attention was long ago drawn to the vastly inferior sanitary condition of suburban, as compared with either strictly urban, or strictly rural, populations. Subsequent reports resulting from independent observations, and a recently published exposition of the state of the Metropolitan Suburbs, have confirmed my original statements.® How, then, are we practically to deal with these outlying districts, such of them at least as admit of profitable improve- ment, so as to prepare them for the safe occupation of the masses who require removal from the foul centres of crowded districts ? In the first place, as I have said, they should be included with the rest of the country in sanitary jurisdictions. More extensive powers should be entrusted to the official and scientific superintendents of these districts; and a different description of local Boards should be established for their management. But, secondly, more direct interference is needed on the part of the State. The question of locating anew large gi oups of population, is by far too wide and too serious to be handled by merely local authorities/ To abandon these wanderers, hanging upon the skirts of civic regulation, to accident or to the unchecked speculation of the harpies who make them a prey; to leave them to their own utterly 1848See Iiei>0rt 011 Mortality °f Gloucester. Journal of Public Health.” T,h® remova,1 of population from the overcrowded to the unoccuuied paits of the earth s surface is one of those works of eminent social useful- ness which most require, and which at the same time best remv tl, • * vent,on of Government ” (.Mill's Political Economy Vol i’i p 6421 1 he earned author m tins passage and its context is treating of coloni^tion old c“uSe°s a,'SUmentS ^ with *** force to nel settlement
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