Chapter XII: Appendix (2)

“With regard to the drainage of the towns in the counties of
Buckingham, Oxford, and Berks, it may be observed that there is no
town in which great improvements might not be effected. In Reading
there are commissioners appointed under a local Act to make provision
for cleansing the town and removing nuisances; but their duties do not
appear to be performed with due regard to the importance of the trust,
for the Board of Guardians of the Reading union, by resolutions
entered in their minutes, frequently point out nuisances, and remind
the commissioners of the filthy condition of many of the courts and
back streets. But extensive as the improvements in the state of the
drainage of almost every town in these counties might be, there is no
town amongst them in which there is so wide a field for improvement as
Windsor, which, from the contiguity of the palace, the wealth of the
inhabitants, and the situation, might have been expected to be
superior in this respect to any other provincial town. Such, however,
is not the case; for of all the towns visited by me, Windsor is the
worst beyond all comparison. From the gas-works at the end of
George-street a double line of open, deep, black, and stagnant ditches
extends to Clewer-lane. From these ditches an intolerable stench is
perpetually rising, and produces fever of a severe character. I
visited a cottage in Clewer-lane in which typhus fever had existed for
some time, and learnt from a woman who had recently lost a child the
complaint was attributable to the state of these ditches. Mr. Bailey,
the relieving officer, informs me that cases of typhus fever are
frequent in the neighbourhood; and observes that there are now seven
or eight persons attacked by typhus in Charles-street and South-place.
He considers the neighbourhood of Garden-court in almost the same
condition. ‘There is a drain,’ he says, ‘running from the barracks
into the Thames across the Long Walk. That drain is almost as
offensive as the black ditches extending to Clewer-lane. The openings
to the sewers in Windsor are exceedingly offensive in hot weather. The
town is not well supplied with water, and the drainage is very
defective.’ The ditches of which I have spoken are sometimes emptied
by carts; and on the last occasion their contents were purchased for
the sum of 15_l._. by the occupier of land in the parish of Clewer,
whose meadows suffered from the extraordinary strength of the manure,
which was used without previous preparation.”

_Mr. Harding_, medical officer of the Epping union, states,—

“The state of some of the dwellings of the poor is most deplorable as
it regards their health, and also in a moral point of view. As it
relates to the former, many of their cottages are neither wind nor
water tight. It has often fallen to my lot to be called on to attend a
labour where the wet has been running down the walls, and light to be
distinguished through the roof, and this in the winter season, with no
fire-place in the room. As it relates to the latter, in my opinion a
great want of accommodation for bed-rooms often occurs, so that you
may frequently find the father, mother, and children all sleeping in
the same apartment, and in some instances the children having attained
the age of 16 or 17 years, and of both sexes; and if a death occurs in
the house, let the person die of the most contagious disease, they
must either sleep in the same room, or take their repose in the room
they live in, which most frequently is a stone or brick floor, which
must be detrimental to health.”

_Mr. J. D. Browne_, medical officer of the West Ham union states that,—

“The cases of typhus (21 cases in the parish of Walthamstow) have
occurred periodically in certain localities, arising partly from want
of personal cleanliness, and also from being situated near ditches
into which putrefactive matter was deposited, such as the privies and
pigsties emptying themselves. The medical officer called the attention
of the Board of Guardians, vicar, and parochial officers to the
subject; and though it was unanimously admitted that the evil was
great, and an anxious desire was expressed in vestry to remove the
existing evil, yet the case fell to the ground, there being no funds
to meet the exigency. The medical officer feels persuaded that a power
should be invested in the Board of Guardians or parochial officers to
meet such cases.”

_Mr. Thomas H. Smith_, the medical officer of the Bromley union, states,—

“My attention was first directed to the sources of malaria in this
district and neighbourhood when cholera became epidemic. I then
partially inspected the dwellings of the poor, and have recently
completed the survey. It is almost incredible that so many sources of
malaria should exist in a rural district. A total absence of all
provision for effectual drainage around cottages is the most prominent
source of malaria; throughout the whole district there is scarcely an
attempt at it. The refuse, vegetable and animal matters, are also
thrown by the cottagers in heaps near their dwellings to decompose;
are sometimes not removed, except at very long intervals; and are
always permitted to remain sufficiently long to accumulate in some
quantity. Pigsties are generally near the dwellings, and are always
surrounded by decomposing matters. These constitute some of the many
sources of malaria, and peculiarly deserve attention as being easily
remedied, and yet, as it were, cherished. The effects of malaria are
strikingly exemplified in parts of this district. There are localities
from which fever is seldom long absent; and I find spots where the
spasmodic cholera located itself are also the chosen resorts of
continued fever.”

Passing the metropolis and the adjacent districts, I proceed to the evidence as to the condition of the dwellings of the poorest classes in the midland counties.

The report from Mr. Hodgson and the physicians of the town of Birmingham will be considered a valuable public document, as exhibiting the effect of drainage produced by a peculiarly fortunate situation. The houses, of which I requested drawings, are on the whole built upon an improved plan. This town, it will be seen, is distinguished apparently by an immunity from fever, and the general health of the population is high, although the occupations are such as are elsewhere deemed prejudicial to health.

The following extract from _Mr. Hodgkins_, the medical officer of Bilston, in the Wolverhampton Union, describes the condition of the population of a colliery district:—

“Bilston, like Wolverhampton, has not been visited by fever to any
extent since the cholera in 1832. The awful destruction which then
occurred swept off many of those subjects who might afterwards have
been victims of fever; in fact Bilston was, after the cessation of
cholera, nearly free from disease of any kind for several months.
Influenza has occasionally visited us and swept off a few. Small-pox a
few years ago was prevalent, but not very fatal, although many
children from negligence on the part of the parents are not
vaccinated. Scarlet fever has appeared sometimes, but only in
straggling cases. The occupations of the poorer classes are chiefly
colliers, labourers, &c., great members of the latter being Irish. The
houses of those applying for parochial medical relief which I have
visited have been dirty and crowded, the habits of the working classes
here being generally improvident and dirty, many parties forming heaps
of filth close to their doors; and here, as in Wolverhampton, I am
afraid it would require the interference of the law to effect any
permanent good. Some years ago a large culvert was carried down the
principal street which has made a great improvement in that part, but
much yet remains undrained. I would mention a place in High-street
especially, near to a court, crowded with Irish, there is a pool of
green stagnant water or mud continually; another place called the
Berry, behind the King’s Arms Inn, and a third in a court in
Temple-street, where there appears to be a drain which has been choked
up, the stench from which is intolerable.”

_Dr. Edward Knight_ gives the following description of the sanitary condition of the town of Stafford:—

“During the year ending September 29th, 1839, there have been in the
fever-wards connected with the Stafford County General Infirmary 76
cases of fever, of which number 10 have died, and the remaining 66
were discharged cured. The far greater part of these cases commenced
in the town of Stafford, some being brought to the infirmary in a
dying state, which gives a greater rate of mortality. Although the
fever-wards are well arranged, and every comfort and attention
provided for the patients, there is a general dislike on the part of
the poor to be removed to them from their own houses, except in cases
of actual necessity.

“Owing to this, and the filthy state of those parts of the town
occupied exclusively by the lower classes, as the ‘Broad-eye,’
‘Back-walls,’ &c., we have generally more or less of infectious
diseases during the autumn and winter months in each year, and
although such diseases do not extend their ravages to the more
respectable inhabitants, the above form but a very small portion of
the cases which occur.

“These parts of the town are without drainage, the houses, which are
private property, are built without any regard to situation or
ventilation, and constructed in a manner to ensure the greatest return
at the least possible outlay. The accommodation in them does not
extend beyond two rooms; these are small, and, for the most part, the
families work in the day-time in the same room in which they sleep, to
save fuel.

“There is not any provision made for refuse dirt, which, as the least
trouble, is thrown down in front of the houses, and there left to
putrefy. The back entrances to the houses in the principal streets are
generally into these, the stabling and cow-houses, &c., belonging to
them, forming one side of the street, and the manure, refuse vegetable
matter, &c., carried into the street, and placed opposite to the
poorer houses; so that they are continually subjected to the malaria
arising from that, in addition to their own dirt.

“The sedentary occupation of the working classes (shoemaking being the
staple trade of the town), their own want of cleanliness and general
intemperance, form, also, a fruitful source of disease. One-half of
the week is usually spent in the public-houses, and the other half
they work night and day to procure the necessary subsistence for their
families. There is a great want of improvement in the moral character
of the poor; they can obtain sufficient wages to support their
families respectably, but they are improvident and never make any
provision against illness. A local Act for the improvement of the town
empowers the commissioners to remove nuisances; but no notice is ever
taken. The situation of Stafford also offers every facility for an
efficient drainage; it is nearly surrounded by a large ditch, in which
there might be a running stream of water, well calculated to remove
all impurities; but it is always choked up, and in a stagnant state.
The river ‘Sow’ is also close to the town. There are not any sewers
even in the principal streets, the water being carried off by open
channels. In the Lunatic Asylum, which closely adjoins the town, and
averages 250 patients, great attention is paid to cleanliness, and we
never have any infectious diseases.”

In the month of December, 1839, an application was made to the Board for advice and aid to meet the emergencies created by an epidemic which had broken out in the parish of Breadsall in the Shardlow union (Derbyshire). Mr. Senior, the Assistant Commissioner for the district, accompanied Dr. Kennedy to the spot where the fever was prevalent, and that report[2] may be submitted to attention, as containing a picture of the habits of a large proportion of the population of that part of the country, and an exemplification in a group of individual cases of the common causes and effects of such calamities on the labouring population.

The report from Dr. Baker, of Derby, and Mr. Senior’s report, comprising the returns from the medical officers of Nottingham, Lincoln, and other rural and town unions within his district, pourtray the sanitary condition of a large proportion of the population included in them.

Proceeding northward, a report from _Mr. Bland_, the medical officer of the Macclesfield union, gives the following description of the state of the residences occupied by many of the labourers of that town:—

“In a part of the town called the Orchard, Watercoates, there are 34
houses without back doors, or other complete means of ventilation; the
houses are chiefly small, damp, and dark; they are rendered worse with
respect to dampness perhaps than they would be from the habit of the
people closing their windows to keep them warm. To these houses are
three privies uncovered; here little pools of water, with all kinds of
offal, dead animal and vegetable matter are heaped together, a most
foul and putrid mass, disgusting to the sight, and offensive to the
smell; the fumes of contagion spreads periodically itself in the
neighbourhood, and produces different types of fever and disorder of
the stomach and bowels. The people inhabiting these abodes are pale
and unhealthy, and in one house in particular are pale, bloated, and
rickety.”

_Mr. William Rayner_, the medical officer of the Heaton Norris district of the Stockport union describes the condition of a part of the population of that place:—

“The localities in which fever mostly prevails in my district, are
Shepherd’s Buildings and Back Water Street, both in the township of
Heaton Norris. Shepherd’s Buildings consist of two rows of houses with
a street seven yards wide between them; each row consists of what are
styled back and front houses—that is two houses placed back to back.
There are no yards or out-conveniences; the privies are in the centre
of each row, about a yard wide; over them there is part of a
sleeping-room; there is no ventilation in the bed-rooms; each house
contains two rooms, viz., a house place and sleeping room above; each
room is about three yards wide and four long. In one of these houses
there are nine persons belonging to one family, and the mother on the
eve of her confinement. There are 44 houses in the two rows, and 22
cellars, all of the same size. The cellars are let off as separate
dwellings; these are dark, damp, and very low, not more than six feet
between the ceiling and floor. The street between the two rows is
seven yards wide, in the centre of which is the common gutter, or more
properly sink, into which all sorts of refuse is thrown; it is a foot
in depth. Thus there is always a quantity of putrefying matter
contaminating the air. At the end of the rows is a pool of water very
shallow and stagnant, and a few yards further, a part of the town’s
gas works. In many of these dwellings there are four persons in one
bed.

“Backwater-street, the other locality of fever, is proverbially the
most filthy street in the town, contains a number of lodging-houses
and Irish, who mostly live in dark damp cellars, in which the light
can scarcely penetrate.

“It is not to be wondered at that such places should be the constant
foci of fevers; there is scarcely a house in Shepherd’s-buildings that
has not been affected with fever, and in some instances repeatedly:
new residents are most liable to be affected, the force of habit, or
some other protecting influence seems to render those who have lived
there some time less liable to be attacked. The same circumstance has
been noticed by others, and M. Louis, who is known throughout Europe,
having made this subject one of particular observation, states that it
is generally within the first year that new comers take fever, whilst
the old inhabitants who are equally exposed to the same exciting
causes escape.”

The report of Dr. Baron Howard, on the condition of the population of Manchester, and that of Dr. Duncan, on the condition of the population of Liverpool, will make up a progressive view of the condition of the labouring population in those parts of the country. The Report of one of the medical officers of the West Derby union, with relation to the condition of the labouring population connected with Liverpool, will serve to show that the evils in question are not confined to the labouring population of the town properly so called.

“The locality of the residences of the labouring classes are in
respect to the surrounding atmosphere favourably situated, but their
internal structure and economy the very reverse of favourable. The
cottages are in general built more with a view to the per centage of
the landlord than to the accommodation of the poor. The joiner’s work
is ill performed; admitting by the doors, windows, and even floors,
air in abundance, which, however, in many cases, is not
disadvantageous to the inmates. The houses generally consist of three
apartments, viz., the day-room, into which the street-door opens, and
two bed-rooms, one above the other. There is likewise beneath the
day-room a cellar, let off either by the landlord or tenant of the
house, to a more improvident class of labourers; which cellar, in
almost all cases, is small and damp, and often crowded with
inhabitants to excess. These cellars are, in my opinion, the source of
many diseases, particularly catarrh, rheumatic affections, and tedious
cases of typhus mitior, which, owing to the overcrowded state of the
apartment, occasionally pass into typhus gravior. I need scarcely add
that the furniture and bedding are in keeping with the miserable
inmates. The rooms above the day-room are often let separately by the
tenant to lodgers, varying in number from one or two, to six or eight
individuals in each, their slovenly habits, indolence, and consequent
accumulation of filth go far to promote the prevalence of contagious
and infectious diseases.

“The houses already alluded to front the street, but there are houses
in back courts still more unfavourably placed, which also have their
cellars, and their tenants of a description worse, if possible. There
is commonly only one receptacle for refuse in a court of eight, ten,
or twelve densely crowded houses. In the year 1836–7, I attended a
family of 13, twelve of whom had typhus fever, without a bed in the
_cellar_, without straw or timber shavings—frequent substitutes. They
lay on the floor, and so crowded, that I could scarcely pass between
them. In another house I attended 14 patients; there were only two
beds in the house. All the patients, as lodgers, lay on the boards,
and during their illness, never had their clothes off. I met with many
cases in similar conditions, yet amidst the greatest destitution and
want of domestic comfort, I have never heard during the course of
twelve years’ practice, a complaint of inconvenient accommodation.”

The following extract from the report of _Mr. Pearson_, medical officer of the Wigan union, is descriptive of the condition of large classes of tenements in the manufacturing towns of Lancashire:—

“From the few observations which I have been enabled to make
respecting the causes of fever during the two months which I have held
the situation of house surgeon to the Dispensary, I am inclined to
consider the filthy condition of the town as being the most prominent
source. Many of the streets are unpaved and almost covered with
stagnant water, which lodges in numerous large holes which exist upon
their surface, and into which the inhabitants throw all kinds of
rejected animal and vegetable matters, which then undergo decay and
emit the most poisonous exhalations. These matters are often allowed,
from the filthy habits of the inhabitants of these districts, many of
whom, especially the poor Irish, are utterly regardless both of
personal and domestic cleanliness, to accumulate to an immense extent,
and thus become prolific sources of malaria, rendering the atmosphere
an active poison. The streets which particularly exhibit this
condition are Ashton-street, Hanover-street, Stuart-street,
John-street, Lord-street, Duke-street, Princess-street, and the short
streets leading from Queen-street, into Faggy-lane and
Princess-street. It may be also mentioned, that in many of these
streets there are no privies, or, if there are, they are in so filthy
a condition as to be absolutely useless; the absence of these must,
necessarily, increase the quantity of filth, and thus materially add
to the extent of the nuisance.

“In addition to the streets above mentioned, there are, besides, two
other localities, which must be considered as peculiarly fitted for
the generation of malaria—I mean the waste land in front of Bradshaw
Gate, and also that situated between Greenough’s-row and
Kerfoot’s-row; the latter is one complete pool of stagnant water,
mixed with various descriptions of putrifying animal and vegetable
matters. Many of the yards and courts in various parts of the town are
so built up as to prevent the movements of the atmosphere, and are in
a horribly filthy state, in consequence of dunghills which are
situated therein being allowed to grow to an immense size, and the
water which drains therefrom being permitted to flow over the
surface.”

Proceeding northwards, little difference is observable in the condition of the working classes in the ancient towns, where the habitations were crowded for the sake of fortification, and in the manufacturing towns, where the habitations are crowded for the sake of vicinity to the places of work, or from ignorance and inattention, or from the high price of land. We cite the following instances of the condition of the habitations and population in Durham, Barnard Castle, and Carlisle:—

_Mr. Nicholas Oliver_, Durham, states that—

“The city of Durham, like all ancient cities and towns, is built very
irregularly, and surrounded on all sides by the river Wear, which is
frequently overflown, and much wooded. These in summer and autumn, by
the combined influences of heat, moisture, and decaying vegetable
substances, become abundant sources of malaria. The streets are very
narrow, and the houses are built so much behind each other that the
entrance to a great many of the dwellings is by a passage, lane, or
alley, either a steep ascent or descent, where, from a proper want of
receptacles and sewers, filth is allowed to accumulate, and there
necessarily is a constant emanation of fœtid effluvia. The majority of
the houses are very old and in a dilapidated state, several not being
weather proof. The great bulk of the working classes inhabit these
tenements, and they seldom occupy more than two rooms, many only one,
where all that is requisite in conducing to cleanliness and comfort
has to be performed.

“The spirit of improvement, which is making such rapid strides in
other parts of the country, is here quite dormant. Nothing calls
louder for the attention of the constituted authorities than the
improvements which might be effected in the habitations of the
industrious classes, thereby increasing their health, comfort, and
happiness.”

_Mr. George Brown_, of Barnard Castle, in the Teesdale union, states that—

“The residences of the labouring population within the Teesdale Union,
especially in Barnard Castle and the more populous villages, is mostly
in large houses let into tenements. At least four-fifths of the
weavers in Barnard Castle live in such residences, and about one half
of all the other labouring poor in the Union. The tenements which form
the residences of the weavers and other labourers in Barnard Castle
are principally situate in Thorngage, Bridgegate, and the lower parts
of the town, and in confined yards and alleys. The houses are many of
them very large. I am told somewhere there are as many as 50 or more
individuals under one roof. There is generally, perhaps, one privy to
a whole yard (or onset as they term it), embracing five or six houses.
From the crowded state of these dwelling-houses, and the filthiness of
many of their inmates, disease would undoubtedly arise more commonly
than it actually does, but the river Tees flows at the foot of each
yard, running alongside of all the houses in Bridgegate. The
impurities are thus speedily carried away, and the evils which might
otherwise be expected from the effluvia of vegetable and other bodies
in a state of decomposition are prevented; besides which, the houses
in general being large and the poorer class in the upper stories, they
are more protected against cold and damp.”

_Mr. Brown_, in regard to Barnard Castle, further states, that—

“A surgeon here of great intelligence and practice states that in the
town of Barnard Castle he has always found the most obstinate cases of
typhus and other epidemics, and also rheumatism, to prevail amongst
the houses on the west side of the principal street. These houses
slope towards the moat of the old castle, which is not sufficiently
drained; and the thick and high walls of the ruins of the castle
retain the damp, and prevent the accession of the western winds to the
moat and many of the houses. In the interior of the castle, now used
as a garden, there is a stagnant pond which ought to be drained off:
this pond is nearly opposite the yards, which are full of the
residences of the poorer classes, and called the Swamp. Disease is
often found to exist in these yards, and the surgeon I have referred
to attributes to it the dampness of the moat (upon or on the margin of
which the houses are built) and to the pond before mentioned. All the
houses on the west side of the street have one step, and some more,
down from the street. I am also told by the same surgeon that very
many of the cases of fever and rheumatism which he attends may be
fairly traced to the dampness of houses or want of sufficient drainage
of the ground previously to building, and their being built below the
level of the adjoining ground, by which the moisture is thrown into
them.”

_Mr. Rowland_, of Carlisle, states—

“Though Carlisle abounds with beautiful walks, it generally has them
accompanied with filthy putrid gutters, and there seems no mode of
compelling any one to clean them out. The city is surrounded with such
nuisances; on the south side at the foot of Botchergate, there is a
gutter, perhaps a mile long, which conducts the filth of that quarter
through the fields into the river Petteril. The stench in summer is
very great. The filth seems to accumulate from want of descent, and
probably the whole descent is in the first field next Botchergate. If
this gutter was paved and the descent made regular, I have no doubt it
would keep itself clean.”

The following is a brief notice of the condition of the residences of the population amidst which the cholera first made its appearance in this country.

_Mr. Robert Atkinson_, Gateshead, states, that—

“It is impossible to give a proper representation of the wretched
state of many of the inhabitants of the indigent class, situated in
the confined streets called Pipewellgate and Killgate, which are kept
in a most filthy state, and to a stranger would appear inimical to the
existence of human beings, where each small, ill ventilated apartment
of the house contained a family with lodgers in number from seven to
nine, and seldom more than two beds for the whole. The want of
convenient offices in the neighbourhood is attended with many very
unpleasant circumstances, as it induces the lazy inmates to make use
of chamber utensils, which are suffered to remain in the most
offensive state for several days, and are then emptied out of the
windows. The writer had occasion a short time ago to visit a person
ill of the cholera; his lodgings were in a room of a miserable house
situated in the very filthiest part of Pipewellgate, divided into six
apartments, and occupied by different families to the number of 26
persons in all. The room contained three wretched beds with two
persons sleeping in each: it measured about 12 feet in length and 7 in
breadth, and its greatest height would not admit of a person’s
standing erect; it received light from a small window, the sash of
which was fixed. Two of the number lay ill of the cholera, and the
rest appeared afraid of the admission of pure air, having carefully
closed up the broken panes with plugs of old linen.”

The _Rev. Dr. Gilly_, the vicar of Norham and canon of Durham, in an appeal in behalf of the border peasantry, describes their dwellings as “built of rubble or unhewn stone, loosely cemented; and from age, or from badness of the materials, the walls look as if they would scarcely hold together.” The chinks gape in so many places as admit blasts of wind:—

“The chimneys have lost half their original height, and lean on the
roof with fearful gravitation. The rafters are evidently rotten and
displaced; and the thatch, yawning to admit the wind and wet in some
parts, and in all parts utterly unfit for its original purpose of
giving protection from the weather, looks more like the top of a
dunghill than of a cottage.

“Such is the exterior; and when the hind comes to take possession, he
finds it no better than a shed. The wet, if it happens to rain, is
making a puddle on the earth floor. (This earth floor, by the bye, is
one of the causes to which Erasmus ascribed the frequent recurrence of
epidemic sickness among the cotters of England more than 300 years
ago. It is not only cold and wet, but contains the aggregate filth of
years, from the time of its first being used. The refuse and dropping
of meals, decayed animal and vegetable matter of all kinds, which has
been cast upon it from the mouth and stomach, these all mix together
and exude from it.) Window-frame there is none. There is neither oven,
nor copper, nor grate, nor shelf, nor fixture of any kind; all these
things he has to bring with him, besides his ordinary articles of
furniture. Imagine the trouble, the inconvenience, and the expense
which the poor fellow and his wife have to encounter before they can
put this shell of a hut into anything like a habitable form. This year
I saw a family of eight—husband, wife, two sons, and four
daughters—who were in utter discomfort, and in despair of putting
themselves in a decent condition, three or four weeks after they had
come into one of these hovels. In vain did they try to stop up the
crannies, and to fill up the holes in the floor, and to arrange their
furniture in tolerably decent order, and to keep out the weather.
Alas! what will they not suffer in the winter! There will be no
fireside enjoyment for them. They may huddle together for warmth, and
heap coals on the fire; but they will have chilly beds and a damp
hearth-stone; and the cold wind will sweep through the roof, and
window, and crazy door-place, in spite of all their endeavours to
exclude it.

“The general character of the best of the old-fashioned hind’s
cottages in this neighbourhood is bad at the best. They have to bring
everything with them—partitions, window-frames, fixtures of all kinds,
grates, and a substitute for ceiling; for they are, as I have already
called them, mere sheds. They have no byre for their cows nor sties
for their pigs, no pumps or wells, nothing to promote cleanliness or
comfort. The average size of these sheds is about 24 by 16. They are
dark and unwholesome. The windows do not open; and many of them are
not larger than 20 inches by 16; and into this place are crowded 8,
10, or even 12 persons.”

In a selection of plans and drawings of labourers’ dwellings will be found a sketch of a group of hinds’ cottages, such as those described by Dr. Gilly.

The progress of the inquiry into Scotland shows the external and internal condition of the poorer classes of the population to be still more deplorable. The condition of a large portion of the labouring population of the smaller towns, and of the rural districts, is displayed in the Report of Dr. Scott Alison, on the sanitary condition and general economy of the population of Tranent; in the Report of Mr. Stevenson, on the condition of the town of Musselburgh; that of Dr. Sym, on the town of Ayr, to which further reference will subsequently be made.

The description given of the houses of labourers of Lochmaben, by _Mr. Wilson_, surgeon, is one which characterizes a large class of houses throughout Scotland:—

“In Lochmaben, they are surrounded by low meadow lands subject to
frequent inundations, marshes and lakes, with dunghills and pools of
dirty water, in which vegetable substances are soaked for the purpose
of making manure on all sides of the dwellings. These houses, similar
to the dwellings of the generality of the labouring classes, consist
of a building 30 feet in length by 16 feet in breadth within the
walls; the floor is formed of clay; ceiling, if any, generally formed
by spars of wood laid close together, and covered with dry turf; one
front door and two front windows. This building is usually occupied by
two families, entering by the same door; the partitions are formed by
the back of the beds, which will be best understood by describing them
as wooden boxes open on one side; the windows rarely are made to open,
so that they are ventilated by the door; but having little fuel, the
door must be kept shut to maintain warmth, and the chimneys being
badly constructed, the dwelling is often full of smoke. Potatoes are
often kept under the beds. There are no proper receptacles for filth
attached to the houses.”

The most wretched of the stationary population of which I have been able to obtain any account, or that I have ever seen, was that which I saw in company with _Dr. Arnott_, and others, in the wynds of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

I prefer citing his description of the residences we visited:—

“In the survey which I had the opportunity of making in September,
1840, of the state of Edinburgh and Glasgow, all appeared confirmatory
of the view of the subject of fevers submitted to the Poor Law
Commissioners by those who prepared the Report in London.

“In Glasgow, which I first visited, it was found that the great mass
of the fever cases occurred in the low wynds and dirty narrow streets
and courts, in which, because lodging was there cheapest, the poorest
and most destitute naturally had their abodes. From one such locality,
between Argyll-street and the river, 754 of about 5000 cases of fever
which occurred in the previous year were carried to the hospitals. In
a perambulation on the morning of September 24th, with Mr. Chadwick,
Dr. Alison, Dr. Cowan (since deceased, who had laboured so
meritoriously to alleviate the misery of the poor in Glasgow), the
police magistrate, and others, we examined these wynds, and, to give
an idea of the whole vicinity, I may state as follows:—

“We entered a dirty low passage like a house door, which led from the
street through the first house to a square court immediately behind,
which court, with the exception of a narrow path around it leading to
another long passage through a second house, was occupied entirely as
a dung receptacle of the most disgusting kind. Beyond this court the
second passage led to a second square court, occupied in the same way
by its dunghill; and from this court there was yet a third passage
leading to a third court, and third dungheap. There were no privies or
drains there, and the dungheaps received all filth which the swarm of
wretched inhabitants could give; and we learned that a considerable
part of the rent of the houses was paid by the produce of the
dungheaps. Thus, worse off than wild animals, many of which withdraw
to a distance and conceal their ordure, the dwellers in these courts
had converted their shame into a kind of money by which their lodging
was to be paid. The interiors of these houses and their inmates
corresponded with the exteriors. We saw half-dressed wretches crowding
together to be warm; and in one bed, although in the middle of the
day, several women were imprisoned under a blanket, because as many
others who had on their backs all the articles of dress that belonged
to the party were then out of doors in the streets. This picture is so
shocking that, without ocular proof, one would be disposed to doubt
the possibility of the facts; and yet there is perhaps no old town in
Europe that does not furnish parallel examples. London, before the
great fire of 1666, had few drains and had many such scenes, and the
consequence was, a pestilence occurring at intervals of about 12
years, each destroying at an average about a fourth of the
inhabitants.

“Who can wonder that pestilential disease should originate and spread
in such situations? And, as a contrast, it may be observed here, that
when the kelp manufacture lately ceased on the western shores of
Scotland, a vast population of the lowest class of people who had been
supported chiefly by the wages of kelp-labour remained in extreme
want, with cold, hunger, and almost despair pressing them down—yet, as
their habitations were scattered and in pure air, cases of fever did
not arise among them.

“Edinburgh stands on a site beautifully varied by hill and hollow, and
owing to this, unusual facilities are afforded for perfect drainage;
but the old part of the town was built long before the importance of
drainage was understood in Britain, and in the unchanged parts there
is none but by the open channels in the streets, wynds, and closes or
courts. To remedy the want of covered drains, there is in many
neighbourhoods a very active service of scavengers to remove
everything which open drains cannot be allowed to carry; but this does
not prevent the air from being much more contaminated by the frequent
stirring and sweeping of impurities than if the transport were
effected under ground; and there are here and there enclosed spaces
between houses too small to be used for any good purpose but not
neglected for bad, and to which the scavengers have not access.

“Another defect in some parts of Edinburgh is the great size and
height of the houses (some of them exceeding ten stories), with common
stairs, sometimes as filthy as the streets or wynds to which they
open. By this construction the chance of cleanliness is lessened, the
labour of carrying up necessaries, and particularly water for the
purposes of purifying is increased; and if any malaria or contagion
exist in the house, the probability of its passing from dwelling to
dwelling on the same stair is much greater than if there were no
communication but through the open air. Illustrating how malaria may
be produced, I may state that in making a round of observation with
Mr. Chadwick, attended by the Police Superintendent, and others, we
visited a house at the back of the Canongate, which in former days had
been the chief inn of the city, but now, with its internal court-yard
of steep ascent, is occupied by families of the labouring classes. In
the court-yard a widow of respectable appearance, who answered some of
our questions, occupied a room which appeared on the ground-floor, as
seen from the court, but was above a stable, now used as a pigsty,
opening to the lower level of the external street. A little while
before, on the occasion of the dungheap being removed from the pigsty,
two children who lived with her, a daughter and a niece, were made ill
by the effluvia from below, and both died within a few days.

“The facts here referred to go far to explain why fatal fever has been
more common in Edinburgh than from other circumstances would have been
anticipated.”

It might admit of dispute, but, on the whole, it appeared to us that both the structural arrangements and the condition of the population in Glasgow was the worst of any we had seen in any part of Great Britain.

II.—PUBLIC ARRANGEMENTS EXTERNAL TO THE RESIDENCES BY WHICH THE SANITARY
CONDITION OF THE LABOURING POPULATION IS AFFECTED.

I now propose to bring under consideration those parts of the various local reports and communications which most prominently set forth special defects that apparently admit of specific remedies.

The defects which are the most important, and which come most immediately within practical legislative and administrative control, are those chiefly _external_ to the dwellings of the population, and principally arise from the neglect of drainage. The remedies include the means for drainage simply, _i. e._, the means for the removal of an excess of moisture; and

The means for the removal of the noxious refuse of houses, streets, and roads, by sewerage, by supplies of water, and by the service of scavengers and sweepers.

_Town Drainage of Streets and Houses._

The sanitary effects obtainable by an efficient town drainage, independently of all other measures, is exhibited in various parts of the country by such particular instances as the following:—

_Dr. Baker_, in his report on the sanitary condition of Derby states:—

“At the back of the whole row (on the north side of the street) there
runs a series of little gardens, each house possessing one, in width
equal to the frontage of the house it belongs to, and in length 56
feet. To every five houses there is a pump; and at the bottom of each
garden a double privy, answering for two houses, the cesspool shallow,
and open to the air; and to this nuisance many have added a pigsty,
and dung or rubbish heap. The inhabitants of this street are poor
people, chiefly silk-weavers, and what are here called
frame-work-knitters or stockingers.

“There are on this (the north) side of the street 54 houses, and
between October, 1837, and the latter part of March, 1838, the
families inhabiting six adjoining houses in the middle of the row were
grievously afflicted with typhus fever, whilst those who dwelt in the
remaining 48 houses were comparatively healthy.

“The following list will give at one view the details of this
visitation.

“The houses are numbered from the bottom of the hill towards the top.

┌──────┬───────────┬───────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┐ │Number│Name of the│Number │ REMARKS. │ │of the│ Family. │ of │ │ │House.│ │Persons│ │ │ │ │ ill │ │ │ │ │ with │ │ │ │ │Fever. │ │ ├──────┼───────────┼───────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤ │No. 25│Langton. │ 3 │Children, all of whom recovered. │ │No. 26│Dearu. │ 4 │Man and wife, the former died. │ │No. 27│Bailey. │ 1 │Man, who recovered. │ │No. 28│Nettleship.│ 4 │Three children, and subsequently their │ │ │ │ │ mother. The children, after many weeks, │ │ │ │ │ recovered, but the poor mother (who was │ │ │ │ │ pregnant), being much weakened by the │ │ │ │ │ fever, and long attendance upon her │ │ │ │ │ children, died soon afterwards in │ │ │ │ │ child-bed. │ │No. 29│Curzon. │ 5 │First a lodger, named Elizabeth Sherwin, │ │ │ │ │ (recently confined) and her infant, both│ │ │ │ │ died. Then three of Curzon’s children, │ │ │ │ │ who recovered. │ │No. 30│Hatfield. │ 1 │A girl, who recovered. │ └──────┴───────────┴───────┴──────────────────────────────────────────┘

“In all 16 persons attacked with typhus fever, of whom five died.

“Here then we have a very interesting subject for investigation;
namely, how was it that in a row of 54 houses, uniform in situation,
size, and construction, tenanted by the same description of persons,
the inhabitants of the six centre houses should have been attacked by
a malignant fever, from which those who lived in the 24 houses above
and 24 below them altogether escaped?

“By a careful inspection of the whole row I obtained the following
information and facts:—That before this street was built, the natural
moisture of the land, and any sudden rush of water caused by rain, was
carried away by a ditch running down the whole length of the hill,
where the present gardens terminate. Also, that in the gardens of the
upper 21 or 22 houses this ditch had been filled up; and sinks and
drains, communicating with the main sewer, that passes down the middle
of the street, had been placed between each garden and the
dwelling-house. At this point too there is a brick wall, carried down
to the bottom of the garden, and dividing this property from the
adjoining, and it is very probable that this wall assisted in checking
the spread of the fever from the six infected houses, at which part of
the row we have now arrived.

“The state of the premises belonging to these ill-fated houses was as
follows:—The ditch already alluded to as passing at the bottom of the
gardens was here not filled up; there were not any sinks and drains,
and the cesspools were overflowing into the ditch, which, here and
there obstructed, formed a succession of foul and stinking pools, from
four to six feet wide; whilst the earth of the gardens was perpetually
saturated with the offensive moisture exuding from them.

“The want of drains, or their faulty construction, may render any
situation unhealthy; nor must it be supposed that because high lands
in the open country seldom require draining, that it is therefore
little needed in elevated portions of a town, for in the latter there
are always dirt and slops that require carrying away from the houses
that produce them. And inasmuch as drains in high situations never get
such a thorough washing out by rain and natural moisture as those do
which, from being in lower grounds, receive a swollen and accumulated
stream, the former require the greater attention to keep them from
becoming foul and obstructed: and it is not a little remarkable that
three elevated parts of the town of Derby are hardly ever exempt from
fever. They are the Burton-road (district No. 2 in the table),
Litchurch-street (district No. 3), and Parker’s Flats (district No.
12).

“In the latter end of the year 1837 and beginning of 1838,
Litchurch-street afforded a striking instance of a situation which
promised exemption from malaria and disease, being heavily visited by
typhus fever, caused, as I shall show, by the most wilful inattention
to drainage.

“Litchurch-street is situated in the southern suburb of Derby, from
which indeed, although forming a part of the Derby union, it is
separated by intervening fields and nursery-grounds belonging to the
General Infirmary. Its course is nearly east and west, running down
the side of a gentle declivity. The houses in Litchurch-street have
not been built many years; are rather small, but are double houses,
having a front and back room on the ground floor, and over these a
front and back bed-room.

“Descending the hill to the remaining 24 houses (below those
infected), and which, from their standing upon lower ground, might
reasonably be expected to have fared worse, I soon discovered from
whence their protection came. The land adjoining the Litchurch-street
gardens belongs, as I have already stated, to the General Infirmary,
and the governors of that institution had eight years before built a
wall in the former course of the ditch, before spoken of, which wall
extended from the foot of the hill as far up as the house No. 24; at
the same time they had filled up the ditch, carrying its contents by a
drain away from the gardens below and into the nearest public sewer:
now reference to the list detailing the amount and progress of the
fever on this occasion will show that No. 25 was the first house
affected. The connexion therefore between the facts here furnished and
the tragedy of the six houses is too obvious to require further
comment.

“I shall conclude this part of my subject by adding, that from motives
of both humanity and economy, the Board of Guardians and the governors
of the infirmary jointly exerted themselves to get rid of so serious a
nuisance, that the latter, at an expense of more than 50_l._, extended
the wall of separation between Litchurch-street and their own lands,
but that, in all other respects, the evil remains now (two years
since) as it was then; nor was there found any law that would compel
its removal, the place complained of being private property.

“My friend Mr. Harwood, surgeon of the Derby union, informs me that in
Canal-street (district 5 of table 1) five sisters in one family were
successively attacked with typhus fever, caused by the escape of foul
air from a drain.

“It appears that a drain, coming from some neighbouring privies, had
been carried so near to the house in which they resided as to form
part of the boundary wall of the cellar, which had for some time
previous become too offensive to be used.

“Four months elapsed before this family became free from disease; no
return of which, however, has taken place since the removal of the
drain, which now passes at a greater distance.

“Taken altogether, I think that in large towns (and villages also)
there is hardly any source of disease more powerful as to its
pernicious influence, or more general as to extent, than defective
drainage.”

_Mr. John Rayner_, the medical officer of the Stockport union, states in his report on the condition of that town:—

“There is a street of about 200 yards in length, the houses of which
are of excellent construction, with very few exceptions, and without
those unhealthy places, viz., cellar dwellings. The upper third of it
is unpaved and without sewerage. It is 10 yards wide, and the
inhabitants are generally very clean, as respects both their persons
and dwellings; and notwithstanding they are, without exception, well
fed and clad, fever has gradually prevailed, _but only on the north
side_ of the street. The situation is not a confined one, neither do
the houses differ either as to convenience or cleanliness on this side
of it.

“In the 10 houses at the upper end of this street (three of which are
untenanted) there has been 21 cases of continued fever. Every house,
with three exceptions, has had several cases, in some of them as many
as four in number. In one, five cases have occurred.

“Seeing this fact, I examined the adjoining yard and gardens, and
found a stagnant pool of water and an open ditch about two feet wide,
into which the refuse water from the houses, and from two pigsties,
was allowed to accumulate. It is about 15 or 20 yards in length.
Adjoining the gable end of one of the untenanted houses were found
heaps of ordure and other refuse matters undergoing the process of
decay.

“The west end of this street opens into some gardens, where free
ventilation may easily take place, and, I have no doubt, has prevented
the spread of infection to the south side of it.”

The following is the comparison of the different mortality in a drained and an undrained district, made by _Mr. Crowfoot_, surgeon, of Beccles, one of the most eminent of the medical practitioners in Suffolk. In a letter to Mr. Twisleton, the Assistant Commissioner, he states—

“You are aware that these two towns of nearly equal population are
nearly alike as to natural advantages of situation, &c., except that
Bungay, having a larger proportion of rural population inhabiting the
district called Bungay Uplands, ought to be more healthy than Beccles,
which has nearly its whole population confined to the town. About 30
years since, Beccles began a system of drainage, which it has
continued to improve, till at the present time every part of the town
is well drained, and I am not aware of a single open drain in the
place. Bungay, on the contrary, with equally convenient opportunities
for drainage, has neglected its advantages in that respect, has one or
two large reservoirs for filth in the town itself, and some of its
principal drains are open ones. The result you will see is, that
Bungay, with a smaller proportion of town inhabitants, has become of
late years less healthy than Beccles. I have carefully taken the
number of burials from the parish registers of each town for the last
30 years, and dividing them into decennial periods, I have calculated
the proportion which the deaths bore to the mean population, between
one census and the other, during each 10 years; the only possible
source of fallacy is the want of the census for 1841; but in its
absence I have supposed the same rate of increase as took place
between that of 1821 and that of 1831 for each place. Sinking
fractions, the following has been the proportion of deaths to the
population in the two towns:—

Beccles. Bungay.
Between the years 1811 and 1821 1 in 67 1 in 69
Between the years 1821 and 1831 1 in 72 1 in 67
Between the years 1831 and 1841 1 in 71 1 in 59