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15
the conditions which tend to enfeeble the parent are
perpetuated in the child, and the future generation
becomes less able to bear up against the noxious
influences which may have only weakened their progenitors.
Something definite is wanted to meet
these conditions, for they are independent of what is
thought to be the common and preventable causes of
disease. Hitherto our attention has been chiefly directed
to what may be called the self-evident sources
of disorder—as the crowding together of human
beings, the collection of putrid refuse, and the insufficient
supply of water; but nothing has been thought
of the more latent influences—as those of habit and
occupation and poverty, and many domestic ills,
the effects of which are quite as serious as those
which come from filth and the action of zymosis:
indeed, the deaths from diseases of growth and constitutional
development are far more numerous than
those of the preventable class, as they are commonly
called; and the time is not far off, when it will be
thought necessary, for the extension of sanitary
science beyond the domain of filth.
The meteorology of the year, which is shown
in Table V. of the appendix, has been fully discussed
in the quarterly reports; and I have only
to add that 7,233 inspections of houses have been
made in the course of the year, of which 803 were