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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health.—1870—71. 15
I now place before you the last Table, and hasten to conclude. This Table is suggestive,
and will give rise to various thoughts, according to the view taken of it. .1 a it are to be met with
the names of the worst localities in our Parish; localities in which disease, crime, and immorality
run riot. Shortly we shall have the opportunity of making the contrast between life
spent there, and life spent in Peabody's Buildings now in course of erection in Blackfriars
Road. Shall we have these buildings, as regards disease and death, like as are Duke Street, Mint
Street, Friar Street, Lansdowne Place, and similar localities; or will they stand out like some
tall beacon, to warn and to guide? Houses so built, we are told, will not pay ; and no speculative
builders have yet been met with who will work upon that principle. Nevertheless, the
builders will come, and such houses will be built; but the time is yet afar off. We do,
however, require a new Building Act; for the evils from which we mow suffer are being
daily perpetuated. I have often asked myself, to what use have the bricks taken up from
the old sewers been applied ? Bricks absorb powerfully and extensively emanations of every
kind. A single brick will suck up a pint of water. When the walls of Hospitals have been
left uncleansed for a long time, the workmen have„ suffered, and sometimes severely. If
these bricks have been used for house building purposes, many will be the hapless sufferers.
They will be always ill and complaining, and knowing not to what cause to attribute their
illness. I may add here that a great amount of ill-health follows the occupation of houses
newly built. Hardly is a house finished before there are blinds in the windows, smoke
coming out of the chimneys, and every sign of domestic life proceeding therein.
The passing of the Education Bill will exercise vast influence upon the Parish for
good. A step has been taken in the right direction, but we may easily imagine that the
stride made, has been greater than it really is. Our anticipations must be kept well within
the bounds of sobriety. The greatest writer of the day has said, "There are unhappy times
in the world's history, when he that is least educated will chiefly have to say that he is
least perverted." How much then will depend upon the education given, and the example
shown. The mind cannot be improved, if care for the body is left out of consideration.
The first effort to improve the moral condition of a hungry dirty child, would be to wash
and feed it. Confidence and comfort would thereby be gained. The late Sir Charles Bell
said in 1839, "There has been in my day a good deal said about education, but they appear
to me to put out of sight example, which is all in all." New measures are passed and we are
in high glee, thinking of the good that will be brought about by them. Such glee is often
of short duration, and mostly ends in sadness. A Scotch minister in 1842 tells us that he
visited some of the mercantile towns in England with a view of making a comparison between
the dwellings of the labouring classes there, and of the labouring classes in Dundee.
He passed through Glasgow and Edinburgh on his way home; and he came to the conclusion
that the Scottish towns had reached a depth of physical degradation far lower than
that of the worst of English towns. "Whatever therefore," he exclaims, "be the superiority
of our working population in intellectual education, are we in our pride of intellect, to
shut our eyes to the deplorable fact, that this educational superiority has proved wholly
unable to prevent the masses in our towns from sinking into a physical barbarism, in house
and person, which to the most ignorant and wretched Norwich weaver, would be intolerable."
A mere education of the intellect will never avail in bringing about that which the
Bill intended. We need an education of the moral powers, and culture of the affections,