Cn bettering the Condition of the Poor. 223 



the expense of about 1200 to 1500/. for drugs, and perhaps 

 about 2000/. for house-rent, taxes, salaries, and other ex- 

 penses — in the whole, between three and four thousand 

 pounds a year. These nearly comprehend all the dispen- 

 saries in the metropolis. 



But it requires little investigation to convince the mind, 

 that drugs alone will not restore an enfeebled body to health, 

 where the cause of the disease originated in the want of 

 nourishing diet. On the contrary, they are often pernicious, 

 unless accompanied by a dietetic regimen, which is out of 

 the reach of a considerable proportion of those distressed 

 objects who become patients to the different dispensaries. 

 There, every medicine is to be found, but that alone whiclv 

 in many cases is to effect a cure. Their bodies are wasted, 

 and must be restored by nourishing food. Their recovery 

 depends on this ; but it is not attainable — it is apt to be 

 found in their miserable dwellings ; and the workhouse is 

 shut against them — it is already full; and the hospitals are 

 also inaccessible. 



That this evil exists, in a great degree, in the metropolis, 

 must be evident from the state of the poor, which has been 

 already explained, and which rests on the solid foundation 

 of parliamentary documents. 



That such also is the state of many patients who are re- 

 lieved at dispensaries, every candid medical man who attends 

 these dispensaries will admit. If the evil therefore exists, 

 and if its magnitude is as great as the facts stated afford the . 

 strongest grounds to suppose, a question will arise among 

 those who are benevolently employed in their laudable en- 

 deavours to better the condition of the poor in the metropo- 

 lis — In what way a remedy can be applied? — a remedy 

 which shall restore parents to their families, and children to 

 their parents, who must otherwise drop into the grave. 



In suggesting new and untried objects, difficulties natu- 

 rally occur to the mind, which often vanish on a patient in- 

 vestigation ; and such it is earnestly hoped will be the case 

 on the present occasion. 



The dispensaries at present administer those medicines 



whicluire most generally applicable to that part of the coin- 



j G m unity 



