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16
time, and including relapses there could not be less
than 8,000 cases. Dysentery also was very common,
and often fatal."
Mr. Peter Bossey also gave evidence in which he referred
as follows to overcrowding: —
"The enlargement of the public establishments, and the
addition to the garrison, have added to the density
of the population, causing houses to be crowded into
every vacant corner, and rooms to be filled with inmates
to such a degree as to render them perfectly
unwholesome. I will instance three cases. In one
room at the top, of the house adjoining the Ordnance
Arms, I 'last year attended two adult women in one
bed, ill of fever; in the same room there lived and
Slept three other adults, including one full-grown
youth, and the father of the family."
"I last year attended a child affected with water in the
head and convulsions. In about two months a child
in another room was similarly affected. On enquiry
into the cause, I found no less than 26 persons living
in that small house."
"A child was brought to my surgery a few months since
afflicted with gangrene of the mouth. Knowing that
this was produced by bad air or by bad living, I
inquired into the circumstances, and found it was
brought from a small house at the entrance to Bullfields,
in "which there resided 21 persons."
The water supply is described by Dr. F. Bossey as
follows:—