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29
Osborne Place 8
Clark's Place 3
Paradise Cottages 6
Paradise Place 39
I have the honor,
Gentlemen,
To remain your obedient Servant,
(Signed) C. MEYMOTT TIDY, M.B.,
Professor of Medical Jurisprudence and Public Health and
Joint Lecturer on Chemistry at the London Hospital,
and
Medical Officer of Health for the Parish of Saint Mary,
Islington.
It is at this point I may venture to say a word on the various
schemes that have been devised for improving the condition of the
poorer classes. It certainly appears to me that of late a retrograde
step has been taken, which it will be hard to retrace. All true
sanitary work must aim at this—" the dispersion of men." To
forget this is to forget what sanitary work means. Congregation
means degeneration. A case of small-pox alone in a room is a bad
enough disease to treat, but if you have fifty cases of small-pox
nestled together in one ward, the disease in each case is likely to be
intensified. The activity of the poison is the result of its congregation.
The sound treatment of the disease, and the best hopes of
recovery, is to be found in isolation. And what are men doing?
Forgetful of this great truth, huge Board Schools are being erected,
monster lodging-houses are starting up around us, whilst every
church and chapel has its Working Man's Institute. All this is in
direct violation of the very first principles of sanitary science. To
huddle together, under one roof, some hundreds of children, certainly
seems an admirable provision for spreading disease. Some
day a fearful outbreak of disease, consequent on this congregation
may occur, and rouse our legislature to the fact of their
mistake. At present the admirable ventilation of these schools
and the open space around the majority of them, no doubt
is their safety; but as a sanitarian, I doubt ths propriety of
adding to already too large a number of these gigantic Assembly