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7
It is very important to observe that the greater number, by far, of the above places are
tenanted by a labouring or poor population.
These are the leading facts of the case. The following propositions appear to embody
the reply which must be made to my original inquiry.
15. I.—The proportion of zymotic mortality was highest in the Sub-district which is
situated at the lowest general elevation, and in the lowest ward in that Sub-district. But
that elevation had really little to do directly with the difference, however it may have assisted
the operation of other causes, appears on arranging the wards in the order of their lowest
zymotic mortality, placing side by side the list of these arranged in the order of their general
elevation.
Wards in the order of lowest
Zymotic mortality.
Wards in the order of their
general Elevation.
Barnsbury. Upper Holloway.
Canonbury. Barnsbury.
Thorn hill. Lower Holloway.
St. Mary's St. Mary's
Lower Holloway. Highbury.
Upper Holloway. Canonbury.
Highbury. St. Peter's.
St. Peter's. Thornhill.
In fact, in Thornhill ward, which most closely corresponds in elevation with St. Peter's, the
zymotic mortality was below the average for the Parish generally (Tables 3 & 4), although
slightly above that of the West Sub-district in which it lies: while Upper Holloway, which
stands low on the list of zymotic mortality, is the highest situated ward in the Parish.
16. II.—Throughout the Parish, the zymotic mortality, where above the average, occurred
almost exclusively in the streets and houses occupied by the lower classes.
17. III.—There appears no reason for believing that there is a larger proportion of poor
persons residing in the East than in the West Sub-district.
18. IV.—The difference in the zymotic mortality of the two Sub-districts corresponds with a
remarkable difference in the conditions under which the lower classes exist in them, viz.: with the
existence in the East Sub-district, to a much greater extent than in the Western, of various
causes of atmospheric impurity in and about their habitations, and with the absence, in a more
marked degree of the necessary appliances for cleanliness, comfort, and health. This will
appear on reading Table 4 with Table 6. The latter table shows that not only are the houses
inhabited by the poorer classes, smaller in the East Sub-district than in the West (and the
size of the house usually regulates that of the rooms) (Col. 3), but that more persons occupy
the same space (Cols 3, 8, 9) , and as if this were insufficient to spread and aggravate disease,
the houses altogether are in a very much worse condition as to airiness and ventilation. (Cols.
24, 25,). The lower classes of the East Sub-district are thus more exposed than in the West
to poisoning of the atmosphere which they breathe, by the emanations from their own bodies. This
condition, as a fact, operated remarkably in the instance of the mortality from croup, measles,
scarlatina, diarrhoea, and hooping cough. It is further to be observed, that the streets, &e.,
inhabited by the lower classes in the East Sub-distrct, are closer, narrower, and less airy, on
the whole, than in the West.
Again, the conditions which favour the production of a poisonous atmosphere from extraneous
causes are present amongst the poor and labouring population to a greater extent in the East Subdivision.—Dirty
houses (Cols. 10, 11.); dampness rising from the foundation of the houses
(Cols. 12, 13), and carrying with it, into the walls, and exhaling into the rooms, in some
instances, the decomposing and pestiferous matters from cesspools and leaky drains ; cesspools
and unwholesome privies (Cols. 20, 21); the former, on theone hand contaminating the soil more
or less extensively around them, and on the other, throwing off most noxious gases into the
atmosphere ; the latter little less injurious from their constant liability to retention of Excrement
in the pans, and in the drains with which they communicate; wet, dirty, and unwholesome
yards (Cols. 16, 17); untrapped drains, (Cols. 22, 23), from which sewer gases rise
unopposed into the yards and dwelling-houses ; these, as it appears from Table 6, are sanitary
defects, much more commonly discovered in the poorer habitations of the East Sub-district,
In many of the houses, again, the dust and vegetable and animal refuse of the families is obliged