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36
been an active predisposing cause. Overcrowding
produces impurity of the air which is breathed, and
impure air constantly breathed, will at last undermine
the strongest constitution. It does this in
various ways, indigestion is first produced, then the
blood is imperfectly constituted, every organ of the
body then begins to suffer, the liver, the kidnies,
the skin, all perform their functions defectively, the
capillary vessels and the nervous filaments supplying
them become imperfectly organised, and they are
incapable of carrying on the functions of the lungs,
especially witheut congestion. The consequence of
all this is that exposure to cold produces fatal
disease of the lungs.
Use of Gas.—Overcrowding may explain the
death in the Berwick Street division, but we found
an excess of death in the St. James Square division,
where overcrowding can hardly be said to exist.
But it is in this division of the Parish that the
perverseness of man has succeeded in producing
results precisely similar from quite a different cause.
The use of gas witheut sufficient ventilation renders
the air as impure as if overcrowding were present.
One gas light consumes as much Oxygen and gives out
as much Carbonic acid as five human beings. The
burning of gas gives rise to precisely the same
consequences on the system, and I am convinced
that a large amount of the mortality of persons
above thirty, in London and our large manufacturing
towns, is due to the utterly reckless way in which gas