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25
A group of 3 or 4 hundred fairlybuilt
houses in Burdett Road,
Limehouse, comparatively escaped
the destroyer; a nest of about 100
more, in an adjoining district — new
houses— to the north east, a quarter
of a mile distant, of a wretched
structure, the flooring resting almost
on the surface, with little or
no ventilation, there on the same
altitude the mortality was startling.
The same rule of death is still
more remarkable in the Limehouse
Union School, while round about,
on the same level, the wail of death
was everywhere to be heard. And
so of many other localities, it may
be said that altitude is not of absolute
significance, but of the highest
relative importance.
As to the deviation from this
supposed law of altitude, in there
being a greater mortality at from 3
to 10 feet than under 3, it turns
simply upon the fact that at 3 feet
the altitude is commonly next to
the water-side, and the river breezes
act as a counterpoise to the poisonous
agency, whatever poison it may
be. At Silver Town and North
Woolwich, several feet below high
water mark, there was little or no
Cholera; because (sinking for the
moment one point of significance)
apart from the large expanse of