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8
But it is in the dwellings of the poor, where from municipal
neglect, the seeds of contagion are allowed to be nourished,
and from whence they are scattered abroad in all directions; in
the street, in cabs and omnibuses. They are brought into our
houses with the washing and mangling, or the new woollen dress
sent home by the tailor or dressmaker; they are introduced
into the kitchen by outside communication with the servants,
or from the mews at the back of the mansion. By all these
methods I can cite numerous instances.*
I have not here space to speak of remedial measures, further
than observe that Ratepayers will find their most costly burdens
are the various form of misery, pauperism and crime, brought
about by licenced liquor traffic, and palliated rather than
prevented by an erroneous Poor-Law policy. It ignores the
causes of evils which it in vain seeks to remedy. The manifold
forms of disease and depravity affecting both the body and
mind are daily increasing the number of charitable institutions
with their expensive staff of officials; but until preventive
measures are wisely devised, and strictly enforced, no true
economy will follow our efforts for the promotion of public
health, which is the primary duty of every citizen.
*It is but three generations ago, when the jail fever, like plague and smallpox
the century before, was so contagious and infectious that it not only
killed prisoners wholesale, but affected those in court, judges, counsel, attorneys,
jury, and persons of all ranks who attended at the trials. Scurvy and
fevers in ships were once so fatal, that Anson who went round the world with
1000 men in his ships returned with only 200 alive. Thirty years afterwards
Captain Cook went round the world with 118 men, was absent three years and
eighteen days exposed to all kinds of climate, but lost only three men from
accident and one from disease. Cook, who was a real sanitary reformer, read a
paper before the Royal Society, and showed what could be done by attention
to victualling ventilation, &c. It is just 100 years since Howard and Dr.
Letsom exposed the horrible condition of prisons, and succeeded in bringing
about a thorough reformation in them. What was then done for sailors and
prisoners must now be done for the working classes by sanitary legislation.
Such as was the condition of prisons in this country at the time of Howard,
is now to be seen in the homes of the people. Dr. Letsom's description of
a prison, may even be applied to many of the squalid dens of misery
where the destitute and neglected poor live, under a centralized and costly poorlaw
management. He declared that "no place of the same dimensions could
be better devised for destroying the life and health of his fellow-creatures."
"Some prisons," he said, "had bad water, or none at all; the air was tainted,
light denied them, so that prisoners literally rotted in close rooms, cells or
dungeons." We have but to substitute these words to express what can be seen
any time in visiting some of the homes of the destitute poor. A dingy back
room, perhaps a kitchen, or an attic, with a cubic air-space for breathing of
700 to 1100 cubic feet, in which are lodged a man, wife, and from two to
five children; the air, as well as their garments and bedding, pregnant with
dirt and infection, from want of soap, water, and proper utensils for washing;
drinking-water stands for hours in this close atmosphere before it is used.
But it is now illegal for a prisoner to live in this manner; the cell has not
less than 800 to 1000 cubic feet of space; he has food enough, and ventilation
according to season, he is in perfect health, and contagious diseases are
unknown.