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17
Waterlow Company afford abundant evidence of the
pecuniary advantages to be derived from undertakings
of this description when properly managed. There
is, in fact, good reason for believing that, with increased
facilities for obtaining possession of dilapidated and
notoriously unwholesome property, as well as of
property in which conflicting interests are concerned,
there would soon arise a class of investors, actuated
as much by sound commercial principles as by
benevolent considerations, who would be willing
to engage in judicious building schemes for the
better housing of the poor. The beneficial effects
of this would, no doubt, be speedily manifested
in an improvement of the public health; for by removing
or suppressing the endemic influences which
are so hostile to infant life, and which likewise give
intensity to epidemic desease, we should surely abate
the pestiferous sickness which now haunts the
dwellings of the labouring classes, and contributes
so largely to the death-rate of the population ; besides
which the functions of the Sanitary Officer would
be more easily and satisfactorily exercised, for he
would no longer have to encounter those inherent
domestic difficulties which baffle, and to a large
extent frustrate his best endeavours.
EFFECTS OF SEASONS.
In close connection with the subject of home influences
are the effects of the different seasons of the
year on the mortality of the people, for these effects,