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Dr Southwood Smith, A Retrospect
[Illustration: Frontispiece]
DR SOUTHWOOD SMITH
A RETROSPECT
BY
HIS GRANDDAUGHTER
MRS C. L. LEWES
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCXCVIII
TO
MY MOTHER,
CAROLINE SOUTHWOOD HILL,
_I DEDICATE THIS MEMOIR_
OF
HER FATHER.
PREFACE.
It is now nearly forty years since the death of my grandfather, Dr
Southwood Smith, and with this distance of time lying between him and
us, it may not be uninteresting to this generation to look back upon the
origin of some of the great social reforms which have now reached such
wide proportions, and to see these reforms as gathered round the life of
a man who was in the forefront of the noble army which promoted them.
He, one of the first to seize a truth, one of the most indomitable to
persevere in the promulgation of it when perceived, went straight
forward until it prevailed, and thus became instrumental in conferring
some of the widest benefits which have come to us in this century.
From his great grief in early manhood he but emerged the stronger. The
force of his condensed sorrow produced an energy which carried all
before it, and resulted in the strength of his middle age and the
serenity of his latter years. In order that such a life--crowned by its
humility--might not pass away without some permanent record of its
nobleness, the following memoir has been written.
I must apologise for the frequent allusion, in the midst of grave public
questions, to my own recollections; but since all the early years of my
life were passed at my grandfather's side, it has been difficult to
avoid this.
Moreover, I have hoped that something picturesque and touching would be
found in the relation of the strong man and little child, who worked
together at various public causes, playing together in the bright
intervals, and that something of the reverent enthusiasm he inspired in
that child might pass, through her, to those who read these pages.
GERTRUDE LEWES.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY GRANDFATHER 1
CHAPTER I.
EARLY LIFE, 1788-1820.
Education. Marriage. Death of his wife. Edinburgh University.
Publication of the 'Illustrations of the Divine Government.' Yeovil 7
CHAPTER II.
FIRST YEARS IN LONDON--DAWN OF THE SCIENCE OF MODERN HYGIENE, 1820-1834.
Appointment to Fever Hospital. 'Westminster Review' articles in 1825.
Laws of Epidemics. Principles laid the foundation of Sanitary Reform.
Its practical importance. Devotion of himself to the cause.
Parliamentary attention attracted to articles. Publication of the
'Treatise on Fever,' 1830. Its phenomena, treatment, and causes. Causes
the most important. Contagious and epidemic diseases. Universal origin
of epidemics stated to be bad sanitary conditions 16
CHAPTER III.
LONDON CONTINUED--LITERARY AND OTHER WORK, 1820-1834.
'Penny Encyclopedia.' The Medical Schools and dissection.
Body-snatching. Lectures--physiological, forensic, and popular. Lecture
over the remains of Bentham. Publication of the 'Philosophy of Health'
35
CHAPTER IV.
WORK ON THE FACTORY COMMISSION, 1833.
History of Factories. Laws previous to 1833. Apprenticeship system.
Appointed Commissioner. Description of state of factories in 1833.
Passing of the Factory Act. Subsequent additions to Act. Visits to see
result of its working 49
CHAPTER V.
RISE OF THE SANITARY MOVEMENT, 1837.
Outbreak of fever in London. Personal inspection of Bethnal Green and
Whitechapel. First Report to Poor Law Commissioners. Ventilation in
crowded districts. Overcrowding of children in workhouses. Second Report
of Poor Law Commissioners, 1839. Takes the Marquis of Normanby (Home
Secretary) to see spots reported on at Bethnal Green. Takes also Lord
Ashley. Press and public men take up the cause 60
CHAPTER VI.
PHILANTHROPIC AND MEDICAL WORK, 1840-1848.
Children's Employment Commission, Mines and Collieries. Improvement in
the condition of women working therein. Report on Trades and
Manufactures. Homes of eastern dispensary patients. "Sanatorium"
founded. Letters from Charles Dickens. First model dwellings founded.
Life at Highgate. My recollections of first "Health of Towns
Association" Meeting. Feeling of public men 72
CHAPTER VII.
THE TEN YEARS' STRUGGLE FOR SANITARY REFORM, 1838-1848.
Causes of delay. History of the sanitary movement at this time a series
of inquiries and defeated bills. "Health of Towns Association" founded
to spread knowledge and guide legislation. Address to the working
classes calling upon them to petition Parliament. Final passing of the
Public Health Act 102
CHAPTER VIII.
OFFICIAL LIFE--GENERAL BOARD OF HEALTH, 1848-1854.
Appointment to the General Board of Health. Letter to Lord Morpeth. Work
at Whitehall with Lord Ashley and Mr Chadwick. Cholera epidemic of
1848-49. System of "house-to-house visitation." Lord Brougham's comments
on it. Cholera Report. Quarantine Report. Interment Report. Attacks on
the Board in Parliament. Fear of centralisation. Triumph of the sanitary
principle, but to be carried out by local authorities. Lord Palmerston's
letter of thanks 127
CHAPTER IX.
RETIREMENT FROM PUBLIC LIFE--ST GEORGE'S HILL, WEYBRIDGE, 1854-1860.
"The Pines," Weybridge. Happiness in its beauty. Need of rest. Study of
modern physiology for new edition of the 'Philosophy of Health.'
Publication of 'Results of Sanitary Improvement.' Lectures in Edinburgh
on "Epidemics." Visit to Alnwick. Happiness in the work of his
granddaughters Miranda and Octavia Hill. Appreciation of former
fellow-labourers. "Recognition." His words of thanks. Joy in the success
of his great cause 139
CHAPTER X.
THE SUNSET OF LIFE--ITALY, 1861.
Visit to Milan. Death of his second wife at "The Pines." Florence.
Sunset from Ponte Vecchio. Last illness. Death. Porta Pinti. "A
Knight-Errant" 147
CHAPTER XI.
THE AFTERGLOW.
Spread of the social reforms Dr Southwood Smith originated. Improvement
in the public health and saving of life. Memorial bust in the National
Portrait Gallery. Lines upon it. A people's gratitude 153
APPENDICES.
I. LETTER FROM MR TAYLOR, ASSISTANT RETURNING OFFICER OF THE WHITECHAPEL
UNION 159
II. RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES OF DR SOUTHWOOD SMITH 164
INDEX 167
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PORTRAIT OF DR SOUTHWOOD SMITH _Frontispiece_
(_From a chalk drawing by Miss Margaret Gillies._)
DR SOUTHWOOD SMITH AND HIS GRANDCHILD GERTRUDE 2
OLD WOMAN CARRYING COAL 72
CHILDREN AT WORK 74
WOMAN DRAWING TRUCK 74
CHARLES DICKENS'S LETTER _Facsimile_ 84
FIRST MEETING OF THE HEALTH OF TOWNS ASSOCIATION 106
(_From an old print._)
VIEW FROM PORTA PINTI, FLORENCE, 1861 152
INTRODUCTION.
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY GRANDFATHER.
My first recollection of my grandfather is of him in his study. As a
little child my bed stood in his room, and when he got up, as he used to
do in the early mornings, to write, he would take me in his arms, still
fast asleep, carry me down-stairs to his study with him, and lay me on
the sofa, wrapped in blankets which had been arranged for me overnight.
So when first I opened my eyes in the silent room I saw him there, a man
of some fifty years, bending over a table covered with papers, the light
of his shaded reading-lamp shining on his forehead and glancing down
upon the papers as he leant over his writing, and the firelight
flickering on the other parts of the room.
The silence and the earnestness seemed wonderful and beautiful. It was
strange to watch him when he did not know it. It seemed to me, then,
that he had been working so through the whole night, and that some great
good which I could only dimly understand was to come of it.
My lying quiet, however, did not last long, for I knew the loving merry
welcome I should have when, climbing--as I hoped and believed quite
unperceived--up the back of his arm-chair, I should throw myself down
into his lap with a loud cry of joy, and then we should have a famous
game, until either he persuaded me to go back to my blankets to await a
rational hour for getting up, or sent me up-stairs to be dressed. These
two things--the intent, absorbed purpose, and the power of putting it
aside to give himself up completely, with simple delight, to whatever he
loved, whether to a child or to the beauty of nature--are the two that
seem to me specially characteristic of him in all that later part of his
life which comes within my remembrance. [Illustration: Dr Southwood
Smith and his grandchild Gertrude.]
At this time we lived in Kentish Town, then field-surrounded, he going
daily to his consulting-rooms in Finsbury Square, returning late and
giving the early mornings and Sundays to public work. These hours were
at that period (1840 to 1842) chiefly devoted to the question of the
employment of children in coal-mines, the more deeply impressed on me
because the report which he was then writing had illustrations showing
the terrible condition of people working in mines.
I remember long bright Sunday mornings when he was at work endeavouring
to remedy these evils. He let me do what little I could, such as the
cutting out of extracts to be fastened on to the MS. report with
wafers--and very particular I was as to the colour of these wafers!
Sometimes all I could do to help was to be quiet--not the least hard
work! Yet I loved these still Sunday mornings, and would not willingly
have been shut out from them any more than from the afternoon ride which
came later, when, perched up in front of him on his own horse, in the
little railed saddle he had devised for me, we rode along the lanes
towards Highgate. I can see now the sunset light falling on the grass
and tree-stems of the Kentish Town fields as we went along.
Then came the day when the Act was brought into operation which was to
regulate the employment of children in mines, and I tied blue ribbons on
to his carriage horses and thought, with a child's hopefulness, that all
the suffering was at once and completely over. "Then, now, they are all
running over the green fields," I said.
My grandfather let me think it, and did not damp my enthusiasm by
letting me know that this happy state of things was not arrived at in
one day!
But although he often played merrily with me and entered into my
childish joys, my grandfather was endowed with a most earnest nature and
with a firmness of character which was very remarkable. He never swerved
from a purpose, never vacillated. One of his sayings was, "Life is not
long enough for us to reconsider our decisions."
It was probably this quiet determination, combined with his unfailing
gentleness, that made him inspire so much confidence in his patients. I
can fancy, in a house where illness was spreading anxiety and sorrow,
the restfulness there would be in his calm presence, and I can remember
the faces of those--often the very poor--who used to come up to him
wishing to thank him for the life of some wife, or son, or child which
they said he had saved. These things used to happen in the crowded city
streets or courts, and sometimes in parts of London far away from the
place where the illness had occurred. The fact that these faces were
generally forgotten by him, whilst _his_ was so well remembered, made a
still more beautiful mystery over it. It seemed to me that there was an
honour in belonging to one who was a help and support to so many. Such
experiences must be familiar to those who share his profession, still I
mention it as being my strong childish impression; and even now, looking
back upon his life, it appears to me that he did possess, in a very high
degree, not only the power of healing, but that of soothing mental
suffering.
It was, in fact, this deep sympathy, joined to his remarkable insight
into the relations between effects and their causes, which led him to
devote his life to the promotion of sanitary reform, when once it had
become obvious to him that all effort to improve the condition of the
people would be impossible until its principles were known and acted
upon.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY LIFE, 1788-1820.
Thomas Southwood Smith was born at Martock in Somersetshire in 1788, and
was intended by his family to become a minister in the body of
Calvinistic dissenters to which they belonged. He was educated with that
view at the Baptist College in Bristol, where he went in 1802, being
then fourteen years of age. A scholarship, entitled the "Broadmead
Benefaction," was granted to him, and he held it for nearly five years.
But in the course of his earnest reading on religious subjects he was
led to conclusions opposed in many ways to the doctrines he would be
expected to teach; and when, in the autumn of 1807, from conscientious
scruples, he felt bound to declare this to be the case, the benefaction
was withdrawn. If we consider his youth and his limited means, it is
clear that this avowal must have cost him no little anguish. He was at
this time only eighteen. It was an early age at which to have been able
to make up his mind on questions so momentous, to break away from early
and dear traditions, and to face the displeasure of the Principal of the
college, Dr Ryland, whom he ever revered. But honour demanded the
sacrifice, and it was made.
In consequence his family cast him off at once and for ever.
During his college career, however, he had visited much at the house of
Mr Read, a large manufacturer in Bristol, who was a man of noble
character, and at that time one of the leading supporters of the
college; and an attachment had sprung up between the young student and
Mr Read's daughter Anne. This lady seems to have possessed both great
personal beauty and much sweetness and strength of character; and though
she in nowise changed her own religious opinions, she yet sympathised
deeply with him in his earnest seeking after truth, and encouraged him
to risk all--position, friends, everything--rather than act against his
conscience.
Mr Read also upheld him through all his difficulties, and in the
following year sanctioned their marriage, which brought with it some few
very happy years. Two children were born--Caroline,[1] my mother, and a
year afterwards her sister Emily.[2]
His happiness was to be but of short duration, for in 1812 the young
wife died, and left him alone, at the age of only twenty-four, with two
little children. With what deep grief he mourned her death his early
writings show, but he met it with a noble courage and an undiminished
faith.
The course he took was a strong one. Deprived of the profession to which
he had looked forward, cut off from all intercourse with his family, and
having lost the wife he so devotedly loved, he resolved--leaving his two
children under the gentle care of their mother's relations--to apply
himself to the study of medicine. Thus he entered as a student at the
Edinburgh University in the year 1813.
At first he lived quite alone; but finding it more than he could bear,
he returned to England to fetch his eldest child, then four years old.
The father and child (my mother) went from Bristol to Edinburgh in a
small sailing vessel, and encountered a terrible storm, which lasted
many days. She tells me that she still remembers that storm of
eighty-five years ago, the thick darkness, the war of the winds, the
toss of the waves, the flash of the lightning illuminating her father's
face; but, most of all, she remembers the feeling of the strong arm
round her, giving the sense of safety.
His interest in religious matters at this period was greater than ever;
for the change in his opinions, in leading him to take a more loving
view of the Divine nature, had increased his ardour for the truth, and
his own personal sorrow had heightened his faith and made him wish to
carry its comfort to others. As well, therefore, as pursuing his medical
studies, he gathered round him in Edinburgh a little congregation for
service every Sunday. The sermons preached by him then, seem to have an
added depth of feeling when we know the circumstances in which they were
given; and the following words, written by him at this time, give some
insight into the calm sublime faith which upheld him, not only then, but
throughout life.
"Can there be a more exalted pleasure," he writes, "than that which the
mind experiences when, in moments of reflective solitude--in those
moments when it becomes tranquil and disposed to appreciate the real
value of objects--it dwells upon the thought that there is, seated on
the throne of the universe, a Being whose eye never slumbers nor sleeps,
and who is perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness? How little can the
storms of life assail _his_ soul who rests his happiness upon this Rock
of Ages! How little can death itself appal _his_ mind who feels that he
is conducted to the tomb by the hand of the Sovereign of the universe!
Yes! there is a reality in religion; and if that happiness, which is so
often sought, and so often sought in vain--that happiness which is
worthy of a rational being, and which at once satisfies and exalts
him--be ever tasted upon earth, it is by him who thus, in the solitude
of his heart, delights to contemplate the idea of a presiding Benignity,
the extent of whose dominion is without limit, and the duration of whose
kingdom is without end! It is a felicity which our Father sometimes
sends down to the heart that is worthy of it, to give it a foretaste of
its eternal portion."
Much interest was felt in the young pale student and his little girl.
For all this time my mother, the little Caroline, lived with him,
cheering his home-coming from the university to their rooms, and
drinking in from him at a very early age--as I, her daughter, was
destined to do many years after--lessons of self-devotion to great ends.
It was at this time of sorrow, and in the intervals of medical study,
that he wrote his 'Illustrations of the Divine Government,' the object
of which is to show how perfect is the Love that rules the world, in
spite of that which seems to clash,--pain, and sorrow, and wrong--all
that we call evil.
His medical studies only added to his impression of the great Whole as
one perfect scheme, for he felt an intimate connection between the field
of scientific research and those religious studies to which he had
formerly devoted himself exclusively. This is shown in his own words in
the preface to the fourth edition of the work, which was published in
1844.
"The contemplation," he writes, "of the wonderful processes which
constitute life,--the exquisite mechanism (as far as that mechanism can
be traced) by which they are performed--the surprising adjustments and
harmonies by which, in a creature like man, such diverse and opposite
actions are brought into relation with each other and made to work in
subserviency and co-operation;--and the divine object of all--the
communication of sensation and intelligence as the inlets and
instruments of happiness--afforded the highest satisfaction to my mind.
But this beautiful world, into whose workings my eye now searched,
presented itself to my view as a demonstration that the Creative Power
is infinite in goodness, and seemed to afford, as if from the essential
elements and profoundest depths of nature, a proof of His love."
This book came to be a help to many of all classes and creeds, and
passed through several editions.
He was often urged to reprint it in later life, but held it back,
wishing to modify it slightly. Not that his opinion of its main
principles had altered in the least degree, but that he thought he had
passed too lightly over the sea of misery and crime that there is in the
world; he thought there was rather too much of the bright hopefulness of
youth about it. Sorrow he had known, certainly, in the loss of his wife;
but the sorrow that comes from the loss of one who was noble and good,
and who has been taken from us by death, is of quite a different kind
from that which comes from a closer acquaintance with the mass of sin
and misery which exists. He did not change his view that, even this,
rightly understood, is consistent with the divine benevolence; but he
wished to recognise more fully its existence, and to enter more largely
into the subject.
Having completed his medical studies and obtained his degree, the young
physician determined to take a practice in Yeovil. The following extract
from a letter, dated August 5, 1816, addressed by him to a friend in
Rome,[3] shows with what views as to his future profession he quitted
Scotland.
"I leave Edinburgh this week," he writes; "I leave it with much regret,
for I have found friends here whom I shall ever remember with respect,
affection, and gratitude. I go to Yeovil, a little town in the west of
England, where it is my intention to take charge of a congregation and
at the same time to practise medicine. This double capacity of physician
to body and soul does not appear to me to be incompatible, but how the
plan will succeed can be determined only by the test of experience.
"My expectations are not very sanguine, but neither are my desires
ambitious."
"The test of experience" proved that he was admirably qualified for the
double office he had taken upon himself, and for some years he pursued
faithfully the plan he had made.
But this quiet country life was not to be his always. It was decreed
that he should come up to London and enter into its teeming life, to
think, and write, and labour, until he had done his part towards
lessening its mass of misery.
Footnote 1:
Caroline Southwood Smith, married, 1835, Mr James Hill.
_Children of this marriage_: Miranda Hill, Gertrude Hill (Mrs Charles
Lewes), Octavia Hill, Emily S. Hill (Mrs C. E. Maurice), Florence
Hill.
Footnote 2:
Emily Southwood Smith, born 1810, died 1872.
Footnote 3:
The Hon. D. G. Halliburton.