View report page

Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
19
dragged off to the Police station. I do not think the conversion of an open free space into
an iron fenced, carefully guarded park, a boon to boys, whatever it may be to others. Of
course, I am not speaking against the formation of parks; let us have as many as possible;
and play.grounds also. Public and open spaces are good, oven as reservoirs of fresh air,
and as media for diluting the poison constantly manufactured in a crowded community.
" Here in this mighty Babylon, 2½ millions of human beings are living, huddled together
in one compact mass, like boos in their cells. And not we alone, but to us are linked
crowds of dogs, cats, birds, and horses; along with chickens in areas, cows in yards, pigs
in cellars, and a host of rabbits and vermin of all kind. And what is all this crowd of
compressed mortality doing, but loading the earth and atmosphere with emanations the
most foul." Yet in spite of all this, our gardens and open spaces are daily diminishing:
however time honoured they are, or useful they might bo, they disappear before the ruthless
hand of the builder, who upon them runs up monotonous rows of brick houses. Trees
are being felled, and shrubs grubbed up ; and these, should repentance ever overtake us,
cannot be replaced in a day. Why should not our metropolis bo as famed for its health
and beauty, as it is for its wealth and magnitude ? I have often wished that our rich
benefactors, who leave large legacies for the euro of sickness, would commence at the other
end, and leave them for the prevention of sickness. And now at last, and with a liberality
which throws all former gifts into the shade, has this been done, and by a stranger. All
thanks to the giver for this gift; and I sincerely hope that end desired by this benevolent
act, may be brought to a successful issue.
The subject under discussion will claim a far more serious attention than has yet
been bestowed upon it. The Census has shewn us that the population of towns is upon the
increase. During the last ten years, this increase has reached over 12 per cont; whilst during
the same time, many of the small towns and boroughs have steadily decreased. Men are
more and more aggregating together; and whilst we gladly road the benefits resulting from
such a social state, we must be careful to provent the evils which otherwise will assuredly
follow, as the shadow the substance. The Registrar General has warningly said, "The
question of the health of towns is therefore a question of the health of England."
As bearing upon the above, I must mention the desire there has been shewn in
certain quarters, of appropriating our disused cemeteries for building purposes; and otherwise
turning them to pecuniary account. Attempts of such a nature should be earnestly
resisted; not only for the reason of the injury that must follow to the health of the people
from destroying these "lesser lungs," but also from the desecration to the dead involved.
An application is to bo made to Parliament, I believe, for the purpose of inducing it to
concede a Cemetery in St. Giles's.in.the.Fields, for the benefit of the Rector and his successors.
This demand, if granted, will soon bo followed by others of a like kind. When
news came over, that the graves of these who so nobly fell before the ramparts of Sebastopol
had been disturbed by the treasure seeking inhabitants of the Crimea, indignation stirred
up the hearts of the people at the wanton outrage. And shall we permit a similar deed to
be perpetrated even at our own doors, and arising from the same motive—gain ? Lot the
dead quietly rest in the graves to which they were committed by their sorrowing relatives;
and there, by the decay and change through which they must pass in the course of
time, kindle into beauty tree and flower, for the benefit and delight of the living.