London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

St Martin-in-the-Fields 1865

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Martin-in-the-Fields]

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22
shall continue to deplore the little influence in raising
the character of our people that has yet resulted from
education. Those who have occasion to visit the courts
and back streets of the Metropolis, know that there are
thousands of children who never receive any education
at all, mental, moral, or religious. Without some more
vigorous influence to diffuse knowledge among the
poorest members of our community, we cannot but fear
we have the same fate in prospect which has destroyed
civilization in India, China, and other countries from
overpeopled ignorant multitudes, whose degradation
has drawn down with it that of the whole race, from
the highest to the lowest.