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6
fact of Wapping having a more sparse population, but which can be accounted
for from the proximity of the Thames, especially under the
moderate temperature which marked the Summer of 1860. But even
at a far higher degree of heat, such as distinguished that of 1858, if
it all fell within the sphere of my remarks, I should be prepared with
such facts and authorities as would tell but little in shaking the
opinion I have given.
Still, in all this there really is little more in it than what might
be exacted as the result First there are the tidal currents twice
a day, at every few yards of frontage displacing many millions ot
cubic feet of air; then there is the constant evaporation from its
surface going on, giving rise to streams of cold air in a lateral direction,
incessantly displacing that charged with animal effluvia and
vitiated by rarefaction. So that there arc currents and countercurrents
at work, arising from the water alone, keeping up a perpetual
atmospheric disturbance; and which I am constrained to
regard as more than an equivalent to any noxious influence from, or jus
a recent authority has expressed it, "the pestilential exhalations of the
Thames."
But the advantage of the river as a sanatory agent must here
cease. If zymotic diseases are diminished, as they are, then lung
diseases by the same agency are multiplied. This portion of the
District is more exposed to the water breezes, the east winds; it has
an atmosphere far more charged with moisture, fogs commonly hang
about it in winter, besides having a surface but from 1 to 3 feet
above the level of Trinity high-water mark. Circumstances such as
these render this locality more particularly obnoxious to inflammatory
diseases of the respiratory organs; and the otherwise healthy and
robust commonly become the victims.
It is then strictly correct, in a sanatory sense, that Wapping,
although with the highest death-rate, is still the healthiest Parish;
and it is equally true that Ratcliff, and then Limehouse, are the
more unhealthy portions of the District.
My predecessor, Mr. Cleland, was aware of this evil besetting
Ratcliff, although the cause thereof was not so obvious at the time.
Speaking of it in his Report for 1857, he says— "Of the cause of this
excessive disproportion of deaths, telling so decidedly against