Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark]
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Parish of Saint George the Martry, Southwark.
will be, that no extravangance can be compared with that of sanitary neglect
proceeding whereby foulness and unhealthiness are produced, is costly and wasteful
beginning to end; whilst the reverse proceeding have precisely the opposite result.
nomy is perhaps a low ground upon which to urge sanitary progress. When we been
wiser we may take higher.
The Prime Minister takes another aspect of the subject, and speaks still more
pressively.— as indeed that aspect demanded. In reflecting upon the health of the peo
he considered it not merely in its philanthropic form, but in a form of far more grave
serious importance, even in that of the decay or endurance of a nation. He said
"the health of a people was really the foundation upon which all their happiness and
their powers as a state depended." And that "it was quite possible for a kingdom to
inhabited by en able and active population; that it might have skilful manufactures,
a productive agriculture; that the arte might flourish, architecture cover the ground
temples and palaces; and that there might be material power to defend and support
these acquisitions, but that if the population of the country was stationary, or the
yearly diminished, that whilst it diminished it diminished also in Mature and strength,
that country was ultimately doomed." Nothing Could be more solemn and emphatic;
nothing could more clearly mark out that the health of the country is one of the main
not the main duties of a statesman, otherwise he would have no country whereupon
exercise his statesmanship. What then, has been the outcome of these admissions of
supreme importance of sanitary work, coupled with other admissions of a likes kind,
times previously uttered? Why the Public Health Metropolis Bill; a Bill quite in keep
with the means taken to pass it through the House of Commons. This was all the sanit
work done during the Session. We have here a striking illustration of the old fable,
mighty throes of the mountain, with the peculiarly small effect. The expressions
vast, but the execution limited.
There was, however, one aim of the Government clearly manifested in the Bill.
that was, to lay hold of more power, by taking away from that of the Vestries. This
deserves a moment's consideration.
Over the soldier, his habits, and conduct the Government possess unlimited cont???
down even to the minutest details of his life. He is a chosen, examined, and tra???
man, and of coarse of considerable value. Hence we should expect to find him the health
the beet fed, the beet clothed, and the best housed of any of the working class of
What is the fact? In a Report of the Royal Commission on the Sanitary Condition of
Army, it is stated that resource must be had to the most unhealthy occupations to
tute a comparison, "fur at present, the Army stands almost at the head of unhea???
occupations in the United Kingdom" Let us enter mere into particulars. You
pet haps remember the revelation that was made in the beginning of the year 1876 of
condition of the married soldiers, of the Royal Artillery, Woolwich, who ware found
living in dwellings over crowded, and "which were the constant abodes of disease
malaria." The confession was made In the House of Commons, to a question put
Member, that four families had been met with, occupying one room, in which there