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17
a want of ventilation must be constantly acting as
a cause of consumption.
It is probable that a large number of those who
thus suffer leave their situations in the parish and
die away from London. The amount of this mortality
is not in any way indicated by the Registrar's Return.
I would especially call attention to one great source
of contamination of the atmosphere in the dwelling
houses and shops of this parish, and that is the
extensive employment of gas. One gas-light, as
ordinarily burned, consumes as much air as six
persons, and where gas is burned more than
ordinary care should be taken to secure the proper
ventilation of rooms in which it is consumed. From
some experiments made in conjunction with Dr.
Letheby, we found that the quantity of carbonic acid
gas in a room over a shop in this parish, that it
contained three times as much carbonic acid as
Dr. Letheby had found in the most densely populated
court in the City of London. Such a fact as this,
shews that by the use of gas without sufficient
ventilation, the houses of the most opulent may be
reduced by neglect to the condition of the most
thickly populated courts of the metropolis. It is
very certain that where gas is extensively burned,
unless every precaution is taken to get rid of the
products of combustion, the health of those exposed
to its influence must suffer, and there is every reason
to believe that the most constant and fatal form
which this suffering assumes is that of consumption.
b