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
You will therefore see that the rate of mortality has gradually
diminished in Beccles since it has been drained, whilst in Bungay,
notwithstanding its larger proportion of rural population, it has
considerably increased.
“The Ditchingham Factory may have given a greater increase of
population to Bungay than I have allowed for, but, on the other hand,
the Roman Catholics and the Independents bury many of their dead in
their own ground, which I have not calculated upon. Since writing the
above, I have been over to Bungay, to examine more particularly the
state of its drainage, which is much worse than I had any idea of. If
their population should much increase, their mortality will increase
much faster.”
A frightful picture of a considerable proportion of the labouring
population of Leeds in respect to sewerage and drainage is afforded by
the report of _Mr. Baker_, who gives the following instance of
amendment:—
“In one of the streets of Leeds where stagnant water used frequently
to accumulate after rain, and where there was perpetually occurring
cases of fever of a malignant character, a deputation of females
waited upon me in my capacity of town counsellor to ask if any remedy
could be applied to this nuisance, which they declared was not only
offensive but deadly. I directed them to communicate with the owner of
the property, and to say that if the grievance was not remedied I
should take further steps to enforce it. Never hearing again from the
deputation, I presumed that the remedy had been applied, and had
forgotten the circumstance until the house surgeon of the fever
hospital in 1840, in noticing the localities from whence fever cases
were most frequently brought to the institution, remarked that
‘formerly many cases of malignant fever were brought in from ——
street, but for two or three years there had been none or not more
than one or two.’”
_Mr. John Wright_, the relieving officer of the Tamworth union, states,
that the following extracts exhibit the condition in which large masses
of the population are kept by the neglect of the proper means of town
drainage, and of the house cleansing, practicable by means of drains:—