Report from the Select Committee on Contagious Fever in London / ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 20 May 1818.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Contagious Fever in London.
- Date:
- [1818?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report from the Select Committee on Contagious Fever in London / ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 20 May 1818. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
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![afford reasonable ground to hope, that without gross neglect and inattention, it is T. Bateman, likely never again to be a prevalent or fatal disease in the metropolis. The House , M' <& of Recovery is sometimes without a single patient in it, and there has been seldom *^ more than four or five patients, and never more than seven at any one time, during (Lettei; from t]ie the last four years. In consequence of these salutary measures, we have the ^SSStSSS^' authority of the Bills of Mortality to state, that fr om an annual destruction of 3* 18 8 Fevcrs^in the lives by this pestilential scourge, (which is the average of the preceding century,) Metropolis.) the mortality has been reduced in the year 1811 to only 906 ; and what is very striking, the reduction has taken place under an increase of population, and has been gradual and progressive from the establishment of the House of Recovery in Gray's-Inn Lane in 1801, as will appear from the following statement of deaths, by fever, during the present century, extracted from the Bills of Mortality: In 1801 2,908. In 1807 1,033- In 1802 2,201. In 1808 - 1,168. In 1803 2,326. In 1809 1,066. In 1804 1,702. In 1810 1,139- In 1805 i,307- In 1811 - 906. In 1806 - 1,332- Impressed with these considerations, we are certainly very desirous of establishing a permanent House of Recovery, for the benefit of the metropolis; and we are most anxious that the protection and preservation of its inhabitants from this fatal and calamitous disease may not depend merely on the duration of the short term in a small house in Gray's-Inn Lane, held at present by a lease to one of our mem- bers ; but that in this metropolis, as well as in Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Man- chester, and other places, a fitting and lasting establishment be formed for the security of the inhabitants. We had indeed flattered ourselves that the large and commodious space of the proposed situation in Cold Bath Fields, insulated as it is on every side, would not only be admitted to be locally and peculiarly convenient, but would be considered as in all respects perfectly unexceptionable. We cannot help wishing, that before the resolution in question had been adopted, the Faculty had been consulted with regard to the nature and validity of the objec- tion. With regard to the space over which febrile infection may be conveyed in the open air, physicians agree, that it cannot be communicated at the distance of five feet. The proposed House of Recovery is intended to be placed in the centre of the piece of ground contracted for, so as to be at least ten feet from the outer wall of the ground. Taking therefore the dimensions stated by the magistrates to be cor- rect, it will appear that there will be a distance of 43 feet between the proposed House of Recovery and any other building whatever; and that between the proposed House of Recovery and the House of Correction, there will be the distance of 151 feet; from an admeasurement of the ground, however, which we have had made, it will appear that the distances are considerably more. We shall therefore flatter ourselves, that before any weight is given to the ob- jection to the proposed House of Recovery, on account of local situation, their Lordships will deem it right that some medical opinions should be produced, in order to show that it may be possible for the House of Correction, or the neighbour- ing houses, to be injured or endangered in any degree by the proposed application of this insulated and airy piece of ground to the establishment of a house of reco- very for protecting the inhabitants of the metropolis from the ravages of infectious fever. We are, Sir, Your very obedient servants, S. Dunelm, N. Vansittart, T. Bernard. 1 Copy of the Report referred to in the preceding Letter, being signed by Sir Walter Farquhar, Dr. Garthshore, Dr. Latham, Dr. Lettsom, Dr. Cocke, Dr. Willan, Dr. Stanger, and Dr. Murray, and dated Nov. 17, 1801. From the experience of Chester, Manchester, Waterford, and other places where houses for the reception of persons in fever have been established, we are satisfied that the number of contagious fevers has been greatly diminished, not only in towns, but](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2130001x_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
