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27
air; in nearly all cases rendered fatal by the presence of decomposition
in some form or another. It matters not what the source of the foul
matters may be: whether arising from open privies or cesspools, refuse
heaps, and the escape of drainage from decayed drains—by which the air
is directly contaminated ; or from the presence of decomposing animal
matter emanating from the bodies of over crowded human beings, and
exhalations from dirty linen, bedding, and walls; the effect is the same,
rendering infectious disease—to the infection of which no one should
be unnecessarily exposed, entirely beyond the control of treatment, and
eminently more infectious then they would otherwise be; and rendering
all of them more fatal.
The number of deaths from Typhus amounts to 31, to which must
be added 8 which took place in the Fever Hospital. That for 1857
was 47, the number occurring in the Fever Hospital being 9 ; and that
for 1856 being 52. Here is a decided diminution.
If it were required to select one disease, most certainly indicating
the unfavourable sanitary condition of a locality or district, it would
be Typhus; hence we may conclude decidedly, that the general sanitary
condition of Clerkenwell has been improved, during the past two years.
Perhaps the money best spent by the Guardians of the Poor, is that
devoted to at once removing patients suffering from Typhus, to the
Fever Hospital.
The large number of other deaths from Zymotic disease points to two
most serious and intimately related evils existing in the District, viz.—
those of over-crowding, and of entire families occupying a single room ;
where these conditions exist, there is no possibility of preventing infection,
nor of providing the sufferer with the amount of fresh air required
for diluting a Zymotic poison, so as to prevent its fatal action.
In thousands of instances in this District, living, cooking, sleeping,
and dying, and the retention of the dead until buried, all go on in one
room, the size of which is not more than one-fourth or one-fifth of that
which it ought to possess, even omiting to allow for the space occupied
by the furniture and the bodies of the occupants.
And this evil is not at a stand-still, for very few new houses are
built, these, moreover, being of the better class, not 'within the reach of
the poor; and the population is increasing, even under its present
undue mortality, at the rate of 800 a year. There seems to exist no
inclination on the part of the Vestry to alter this state of things at
present. Attention, however, has recently been drawn to it and the
attendant evils, by Capt. Harris, the Assistant Commissioner of Police,
who has shown the importance of placing all single rooms occupied by
families, under the control of the Common Lodging Houses Act, which
it is hoped will soon be done.
290 deaths arose from Consumptive diseases; the number in 1857
being 274. Many of these might probably be traced to