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2
That the diminished mortality and the lesser frequency of epidemic
diseases, are really due in great measure to sanitary works and inspection,
is proved by the diminution and even disappearance of certain forms
of sickness from streets, courts, and districts where sewers have been
constructed, ventilation provided, and other improvements effected;
whilst on the other hand, the districts still requiring these necessary
reforms furnish far more than their proportion of the epidemic sickness
and mortality. These important facts are demonstrated by registers 0n
which are kept recorded the cases of epidemic disease and death occurring
in every house. These are too voluminous to publish, but they are open
for inspection.
The arrest of the ratio of increase of the population, may be partially
ascribed to the demolition of small tenements. And the same cause has
certainly contributed to the diminution of sickness. Thus six houses in
Mason's Court, eight in Gillum's Fields, five in Dean's Yard, besides
many other isolated houses of unhealthy character have been rased.
The construction of the projected Railway, will of course involve further
alterations and demolitions. These I fear will not all be of a beneficial
nature.
That strictly local causes, and not the condition of the River, are
most immediately influential upon health, is now proved by the healthhistory
of several years. Whether the Thames has been offensive, or
not, the health of London has gone on improving pari passu with local
improvements. It is also important now to record, and hereafter to
bear in mind, that before the operation of the Main-Drainage system,
the health of the town has steadily improved. Had this system been
brought into work, two years earlier, the credit of our improved salubrity
would undoubtedly have been by many, triumphantly ascribed to its
action. The experience brought by delay, has happily been the means
of dispelling many injurious fallacies. We shall now be able to estimate
at their proper value the advantages or the disadvantages of what was
once proclaimed as the great and universal remedy—the Main-Drainage
system.
More and more impressed with the truth that sewage is the more
noxious in proportion to its retention in a decomposing state near our
dwellings, I again insist upon the importance of adopting means for