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this manner, it acquired a highly contagious power. So in London it
has arisen chiefly amongst the most destitute of the population. Thus,
the Refuge for the Destitute in the neighbouring parish of St. Lukes'
was, for many months, literally a depot of typhus. Many cases were
drafted from thence to St. Luke's Workhouse, and no doubt, some cases
belonging to Shoreditch were the result of importation, brought about
by the vagrant habits of the destitute class amongst whom the disease
prevailed. It is patients suffering from this kind of fever, whom it is
especially desirable to remove from their unhealthy dwellings to the
well-aired wards of the Workhouse Fever Infirmary. This is one of
those forms of disease which occasion the most anxiety in the future to
thoso whose duty it is to watch over the public health of the metropolis.
Drainage, and the other ordinary sanitary works may be steadily, and
to a certain point effectually, made to meet the requirements of the
population; but no ordinary vigilance or legislative powers will always
bo sufficient to obviate the constant tendency of town populations to
accumulate in small spaces.
The most practicable remedy, although often a merely palliative one,
against the evil of overcrowding, lies in securing full ventilation of houses
and rooms. An effectual hindrance to the application of this remedy is
constantly arising in the want of space at the backs of the houses. The
construction of houses back-to-hack, so as to preclude the possibility of
through-ventilation, will, it is hoped, be not again tolerated. The
number of tenements of this description is happily diminishing. Rut
there is still danger of the construction of houses with so little space in
the rear, that the impediment to the circulation of air, and the access of
light, amounts to a very serious evil. Without an extent of domiciliary
controul, which the most ardent and despotic sanitarian cannot contemplate
as possible to exercise, we cannot hope to maintain the constant
observance of a standard number of cubic feet of room for each inmate
of a dwelling. But it is quite possible by legislative measures to secure
what is better; and that is, a sufficient clear space in the rear of each
new house to allow of ventilation and light. There is no sanitary measure
that promises more towards mitigating the double danger arising
from the crowding of families in small rooms, and from the concentration
of masses of population on small areas than this of ensuring a sufficient
space at the back and front of each house. The minimum horizontal or