[ 221 ] 



XXXVIII. Report of Dr. M. Garthshore and Patrick 

 Colquhoun, Esq., to the Society for lettering the Con- 

 dition of the Poor , to whom it was submitted to consider 

 the Expediency and Practicability of establishing an Ex- 

 perimental Dispe?isary in the Metropolis, comprising in 

 its Structure a Dietetic Regimen for debilitated Patients. 



Xjkfore any accurate opinion can be formed of the utility, 

 necessity, and practicability, of adding a dietetic to the me- 

 dicines generally administered to the poor at the different 

 dispensaries in the metropolis, it may be useful to detail a 

 number of prominent facts, which either bear directly or 

 collaterally on this subject, and which are necessary to assist 

 the mind in forming a correct judgment. 



According to the parliamentary returns of the year 1803, 

 it appears that the number of poor persons relieved in that 

 year in the metropolis, comprehending all the parishes 

 within the bills of mortality, besides Marylebone, St. Pan- 

 eras, Paddington, Kensington, Chelsea, and Islington, (in- 

 cluding a population, according to the parliamentary re- 

 turns of 1801, amounting in the whole to 846,845 persons,) 

 was 86,120. 



Of these 86,120 poor persons relieved, 



14,746 were maintained in sixty workhouses, at 

 theyearly expenseof 14.1.8s. 3\d. per head. 

 C 2 1,97 7 vvere relieved out of work- 

 •^0^1^) houses, at the expense of about i2 15 



*!;?J-' ti * d a | 33,187 were occasionally relieved — at 



the expense of about - 15 

 16,310 were relieved, not being pa- 

 rishioners, supposed vagrants, 2 



year. 



Total 86,120 



The number of children under fourteen years of age are 

 nearly equal to the adults who have received relief. The 

 workhouses (sixty in number) % are generally full during 

 the winter months, and the greatest number that can be ac- 

 commodated 



