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in holdings of single rooms, owners have been called upon to cleanse their
houses every year at the beginning of Summer—the season at which diseases
dependent on putrescent contamination of the air are known to prevail. The
wisdom of thus making indiscriminate war on dirt in all its forms, can scarcely
be questioned if we consider what is meant by and included in the term. The
dust of London, the impalpable haze which the brightest summer sun is unable
to disperse, does not consist entirely of smoke; if you collect it, and submit it
to the microscope, you find that although it is mostly made up of minute particles
of carbon, some twenty-five millions of which would be required to cover a
square inch of surface, there are also particles of another kind which have been
derived from the exhalations of man and animals. If you pass a quantity of
London air through the purest water, such water shortly becomes foul, the
germs of microscopic vegetables with which it has been impregnated sprout into
a net work of branching filaments. Animal impurity mixed with soot is deposited
in every shower of rain, and blackens the walls of our houses and the stems of
the trees. In dry and hot weather these deposits are more or less reconverted
into dust and again restored to the atmosphere, so that foulness exists everywhere
and at all times in the air of cities; it is this in fact, which constitutes the main
difference, between town and country air in their relation to health—the reason
why a Londoner, even under the most favorable circumstances has less expectation
of life than a Countryman of the same age, while we readily admit that we
should rather destroy this material altogether, we do the best we can for the
purification of the air under the circumstances in covering it over with lime-wash.
Next to the general condition of the house, the Inspector is called upon to
report on the receptacles for dust and refuse, and on the water-closets. Here
the sanitary committee adopts no general rule, acting on the circumstances of
each case. The dust-bin must be so constructed that its contents should offer
as small a surface to the air as possible, and it must be protected from the rain.
Dust is a mixed product, consisting of ash contaminated with a variety of
putrescible matters. The ash, of which dust mainly consists so long as it
remains dry has the power of absorbing the foul smell of the decomposing
matters which are mixed with it: but in the wet state it no longer possesses
this power. For this reason the Sanitary Committee require that the dust-bin
should be furnished with a lid or cover only when its contents would otherwise
be exposed to the rain. As regards water-closets the apparatus for the supply
of water must be of such construction as to ensure perfect cleanliness, and so
simple as to be incapable of being deranged even by the most careless misuse.
The apparatus hitherto employed in the houses of the poor has failed in both
respects; the scour is inadequate and the tap constantly out of order. In consequence,
many owners have been led to adopt the very objectionable plan of
leaving the closet without supply, except during the time that water is flowing
from the Water Company's mains. This expedient has been constantly objected
to by the Sanitary Committee.
The most difficult question relating to the improvement of dwellings is that
of ventilation. In summer it is usual to find quite as much ventilation in the
houses of the poor as in those of the wealthy; but to enforce the admission of
a wholesome quantity of air in winter is not only difficult but impossible. By
opening the window or door, the chimney draught is increased, and heat is lost,
and in small rooms and frosty weather the depression of the temperature of the
body is unsupportable unless counteracted by increased clothing and abundant
food. The repugnance of the poor to open their windows in winter, is therefore
not to be attributed to prejudice, but is the result of an inevitable physiological
necessity.
Note.—The benefit to health arising from general cleanliness, independently of other causes,
has been lately exemplified by an enquiry which has been made by French Hospital Surgeons
into the causes of the greater success of certain dangerous surgical operations in London than
in Paris. It appears that all those consequences of severe operations that are known to be
determined by unfavourable sanitary conditions (erysipelas, traumatic fever, pyæmia, &c.), are
far more prevalent among our neighbours than among ourselves—notwithstanding that many of
the Paris Hospitals are better ventilated and are in more airy situations than those of London.
The difference may be partly owing to the more liberal dietary, but mainly owing to the scrupulous
cleanliness (proprelé Hollundaise) of our wards, as contrasted with the fouluess of floors,
walls, and especially of the sinks and closets (labrines) abroad.