The sanitary state of Madeley and Ironbridge is far from what it ought to
be. There is not only a sad deficiency of water, but much that is used
is impure. Severn water is carried and sold at Madeley Wood and Lincoln
Hill at 1d., 1½., and sometimes 2d. per pail, or 6d. for a small barrel.
Again, any one who knows the turbid tale of Severn-water after rain, or
is acquainted with the amount of sewage thrown into the river, will
question the quality of such water for drinking purposes. Just above one
of the lading places a sewer comes down near the back of the Police
Office and empties its black sludge into the river. Some use filters;
but high authorities on the subject assert that although mechanical
impurities may be got rid of those which are chemical or organic remain.
Let persons who undervalue an abundant supply of good water ask their
wives or some medical man as to its importance; or let them beg it or buy
it, and fetch it from long distances, often waiting their turns at the
well, or count the cost which impure water entails. Let them look at the
sickness, the pain and distress of parents watching day by day the
fevered or pallid cheeks and withered forms of their household treasures.
Perhaps the mother herself is struck down, or the bread-winner of the
family; and in case death ensues, added to the crushing force of the
blow, there are doctor’s bills, and excessive funeral expenses, which lie
as a dead-weight from which the family scarcely ever recovers!
“When,” as the Times newspaper put it some time ago, “it is
considered that water constitutes nearly three-fourths of the entire
weight of the animal body, that it is the basis of all beverages, and
the solvent by means of which all food is assimilated and all
secretion is performed, the importance of obtaining it in a state of
purity would seem to require no further demonstration.
Unfortunately, however, although the facts have for a long time been
universally admitted, the practical conclusions to which they would
lead have comparatively seldom been acted upon. Not only do we
obtain the greater part of our supply of water from that which has
already washed the earth, but we have permitted water flowing in its
natural channels to be everywhere utilised as a carrier of the worst
descriptions of filth.”
All in fact must see on a little reflection that however excusable
certain things might have been at one time they are no longer so under
the light thrown upon them by deep and long-continued investigations by
scientific men who have devoted much study to the subject. All must know
that no proper supervision has up to the present been taken, and nothing
like proper compulsion has been applied to the removal of glaring evils.
Let those who are apathetic on this subject ponder the following, taken
from a paper read a short time since before the Society of Arts by J. J.
Pope, Professor of Hygiene to the Birkbeck Institution. The author
said:—
“it is a startling fact that one-fourth of the children born into
this world to endure for threescore years and ten, die before they
attain the age of five years. This is a sad truth, and the more
lamentable when we know that these deaths mostly arise from causes
that are quite preventible.”
The same author said, and said truly, that:
“Very few people, indeed, consider the subject of their own health,
until warned by a present attack of sickness, through failing to
acknowledge the true worth of science and medicine, which is far more
preventive than remedial. Can it be doubted that it is better and
wiser to abolish the cause of disease, to prevent its appearance,
than to wait for its attack and cure the result?”
As regards houses: some have been built without reference either to
light, air, or dryness. Some have been made out of cattle-sheds, cabins,
and stables, and are far worse than prison cells or workhouse wards.
These damp dark dungeons lower the temperature of the body, decrease the
strength, generate disease, cause rheumatism, and predispose to other
evils, not the least of which is consumption. We have it on the
authority of the highest medical men that with proper sanitary objects
attained a reduction of nearly half the present premature disability from
sickness, and mortality due to conditions about their dwellings may be
obtained.
Let the people ponder these things; let them balance such heavy items
against the trivial cost a better sanitary state of things would entail.
Whatever such cost might be it is for them to consider what they would
save by the removal of causes of disease, and the concomitant advantages
arising from improved health and prolonged life. Again, it is only fair
for them to consider the amount they pay and the precautions they take to
mitigate the evils of sickness.
And the question naturally arises whether whilst providing so liberally
for sickness, it is not worth while paying a slight rate for the
enforcement of such sanitary regulations as may prevent
sickness—especially if the statement made on the highest medical
authority, to the effect that a reduction of nearly half the present
sickness and premature mortality might be prevented, be correct.