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FIRST ANNUAL
REPORT.
To the Board of Works for Hackney District.
Gentlemen,
The completion of the first year of any new scheme, constitutes
one of the most important periods in its history, as some opinion
may then be formed of its future success, and of its strong and weak
points; but, important as this is in an undertaking which involves the
expenditure of large sums of money, it is yet more so in one which
concerns the health, and therefore the well-being of above two and a
half millions of human beings. Id is with a feeling of the great
responsibility which devolves upon me, as the Superintendent of the
general sanitary arrangements for above 70,000 persons, that I now
present to you, a brief, but I hope sufficiently explicit account of my
stewardship for the past year, and of the health of the inhabitants of
this large and wealthy district.
During the first months which succeeded my appointment, I
employed myself in becoming familiar with the general peculiarities
of the district, the general distribution of its inhabitants, and especially
of the poor; for amongst them we meet with many causes of disease,
from which the rich are exempt. These may be briefly enumerated as
follows:—The want of food in proper quantities, and of good quality
of proper ventilation of a due water supply of well drained houses
and streets; the absence of proper paving in front of their dwellings,
and of plenty of light; and lastly, the presence of cesspools near their
rooms, and of overcrowding. In addition to these causes of disease,
may be mentioned an amount of bodily labour in excess of that required
for health, and therefore the cultivation of the physical, to the almost
complete neglect of the moral faculties and the intellectual powers.
In regarding a population in a sanitary point of view, these great
and broad distinctions must not be lost sight of, for in proportion as a
district contains a larger or smaller proportion of wealthy inhabitants,
so will, cateris paribus, the longevity and health of its population
vary for not only are excessive labour, a want of proper ventilation,
and of a due supply of light, &c., injurious in themselves, but they are
also hurtful, by producing feelings of malaise, langour. and mental
depression, which are temporarily removed by stimulants, and therefore
often induce habitual drunkenness.