CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Taking the whole of the above facts into 

 account, we must see that not only do health and 

 longevity depend expressly on laws the operation 

 of which we can understand, but man has it in 

 his power to modify to a great extent the circum- 

 stances in which he lives, with a view to the pro- 

 motion of his organic wellbeing and preservation. 

 We see that the draining of a marsh banishes the 

 ague, that a change from city to country air 

 diminishes mortality, and that the greater com- 

 forts possessed by the affluent secure them longer 

 life than the poor. It may not immediately be 

 in the power of every one to change his circum- 

 stances from the unhealthy to the healthy ; but 

 it is a great matter to know that the object is 

 within human power, for then at least an en- 

 couragement is held out to induce each individual 

 to make every possible effort to put himself, and 

 to contribute to putting society in general, into 

 more salubrious conditions. 



The object may be said to depend partly upon 

 individual, and partly upon social efforts. Every 

 person has some control over the quantity and 

 quality of the food he eats, the condition of the 

 air he breathes, and the exercise, repose, and 

 recreation which are demanded by his muscular 

 and nervous system, according to the principles 

 laid down in this and similar treatises ; as also 

 some power to refrain from injurious excesses, and 

 to avoid the various external agencies of a detri- 

 mental kind which constantly beset him. Let him 

 act as he ought to do in these respects, and he 

 will reap an immediate reward in that pleasurable 

 state of consciousness which attends a healthy 

 existence. But some of the most important 

 requisites for health depend on public measures. 

 It unfortunately happens, in most countries, that 

 while the bearing of certain acts upon individual 

 happiness is fully seen and provided for, those 

 which affect the condition of communities are 

 imperfectly understood ; so that measures destruc- 

 tively injurious to millions will be blindly enforced 

 and defended by those who would severely punish 

 the slightest wrong inflicted by one man upon 

 another. 



Some facts elicited by parliamentary inquiry, 

 with regard to several of our principal cities, 

 are of a most startling kind. 



736 



Dr Arnott, when examined as to the prevalence 

 of fever in Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Wapping, 

 and certain other districts in the metropolis, 

 attributed them directly to the dirty and neglected 

 state of these localities, instancing ' Houses, 

 courts, and alleys without privies, without covered 

 drains, and with only open surface-gutters, so ill 

 made, that the fluid in many cases was stagnant ; 

 large open ditches containing stagnant liquid 

 filth ; houses dirty beyond description, as if never 

 washed or swept, and extremely crowded with 

 inhabitants ; heaps of refuse and rubbish, vege- 

 table and animal remains, at the bottom of close 

 courts and in corners.' [The amount of noxious 

 matter which is allowed to collect in London is 

 far beyond what most of its inhabitants have any 

 conception of, as is the case with most other con- 

 ditions chiefly affecting the poor.] In Manchester, 

 18,300 persons, or one-twelfth of the whole work- 

 ing population, live beneath the level of the 

 ground, with an insufficiency of both light and 

 air. In that town, the dwellings of labourers are 

 often situated in narrow courts, and back to back, 

 so as to prevent ventilation ; the drains are far 

 from sufficient; and till recently, there was not 

 in the town one free space in which the people 

 could enjoy the slightest recreation. In Liverpool, 

 39,000 persons live in cellars, dark, damp, con- 

 fined, ill ventilated, and dirty. The class next 

 above, to the number of 80,000, inhabit houses 

 built around small courts, closely pent up, back 

 to back, with only one entrance to each, and 

 usually a receptacle for refuse in the centre an 

 arrangement which appears as if it had been 

 expressly calculated to keep health low and 

 mortality high. In Leeds, a similar style of 

 building obtains, with a similar train of circum- 

 stances ' no effective drainage, inspection, or 

 system of paving or cleansing.' The greater part 

 of this town was described in 1839 as 'in a most 

 filthy condition, demanding an immediate remedy.' 

 It was mentioned, that in a certain dirty yard 

 there was a house which for many years had been 

 the seat of disease of a very malignant character : 

 three years ago, the attention of the commissioners 

 of police was directed to the extremely imper- 

 fect drainage of the surface-water : at that time, 

 a better escape for the refuse-water was provided ; 

 and since that period, says the reporter, ' I believe 

 we have not had a single case of fever from that 

 particular locality! 



Narrow alleys and close courts, with wet filth 

 constantly exhaling within them, and containing 

 a densely huddled and extremely poor population, 

 exist in Edinburgh, where, however, an exposure 

 to high winds makes the evil less pestilential. In 

 Glasgow, a comparatively level city, the same 

 peculiarity exists to perhaps a greater extent than 

 in any other British city. This, added to the 

 miserably insufficient succour extended to the 

 poor,and the influx of migratory Irish, renders Glas- 

 gow one of the unhealthiest cities in the empire. 



