220 



DWELLINGS, LABORERS'. 



" I also obtained the first photograph of the 

 moon. When Daguerre's process was published 

 I gave it a critical examination, and described 

 the analogies existing between the phenomena 

 of the chemical radiations and those of heat." 

 These and numerous other services which he 

 rendered to science were freely acknowledged ; 

 and the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 

 ences, at Boston, bestowed upon him the Rum- 

 ford medals for the year 1875 (one of gold and 

 one of silver) for his " Researches on Radiant 

 Energy." A full list of Dr. Draper's other sci- 

 entific memoirs and papers, corrected by him- 

 self, is given in an address delivered by him in 

 1874, entitled "Contributions to Chemistry" 

 (pp. 78-82). A number of papers in science 

 are in the hands of his sons, who, it is expected, 

 will publish them in due time. 



In addition to his profound researches in sci- 

 ence, Dr. Draper gave attention to other, and, 

 as he regarded them, kindred topics. His 

 "History of the Intellectual Development of 

 Europe " appeared in 1862, and has been trans- 

 lated into French, German, Italian, Polish, Rus- 

 sian, etc. Four lectures delivered by him, in 

 1865, before the New York Historical Society, 

 were published under the title of " Thoughts 

 on the Future Civil Policy of America." Be- 

 tween 1867 and 1870 he gave to the public his 

 " History of the American Civil War " (three 

 vols., 8vo) ; and in 1874, a volume entitled 

 "History of the Conflict between Religion and 

 Science " (12mo). Dr. Draper was also a fre- 

 quent contributor to the pages of scientific jour- 

 nals and magazines. 



DWELLINGS, LABORERS'. The question 

 of sanitary dwellings for the poor has not awak- 

 ened the interest of legislators in the United 

 States beyond the requirements of proper 

 plumbing, fire-escapes, etc. Even these laws 

 are suffered to fall into disuse. Philanthropic 

 individuals have built model tenement-houses 

 in Brooklyn, New York, and other places. Yet, 

 although the results were fairly satisfactory, the 

 movement in this direction has ceased. The 

 great Peabody buildings of London have yet no 

 counterpart in American cities. These were 

 erected in a district where the mortality was 

 the greatest in the metropolis, double the usual 

 rate. In them the death-rate is considerably 

 below the average. For fifteen years the Brit- 

 ish Parliament has made the housing of the 

 working-people of London a subject for legis- 

 lative interference. In the same time private 

 persons have devoted large amounts of capital 

 to providing sanitary dwellings for the poor at 

 low rents. The effect of the laborers' dwell- 

 ings' acts of Parliament has apparently been 

 to crowd the poorer population more closely 

 together, and to increase their rents some 17 

 per cent on an average. Such were the un- 

 toward results temporarily of the first laws, 

 under which a large number of buildings were 

 condemned, but which contained no provisions 

 for the shelter of the tenants who crowded 

 into the remaining tenements. The rise in 



rents is really due to the increased value of 

 property for business and residences. This in- 

 crease may be judged from the rise in the as- 

 sessed valuation of the city of London, which 

 has been 185 per cent in twenty years. The 

 rents of rooms in the Limehouse and White- 

 chapel districts of the metropolis have risen in 

 consequence of the development of business 

 and population from two shillings to more than 

 double, and whole families are sometimes 

 crowded into little closets which are now let 

 for two shillings or less a week. The land- 

 lords of these miserable tenements are usually 

 small speculators, who have no sense of respon- 

 sibility for the condition of the houses. The 

 death-rate, which was under 20 per 1,000 in the 

 rest of the metropolis, rose in these wretched 

 courts to 40 per 1,000. The spread of zymotic 

 diseases from these centers affected the whole 

 population. To meet these evils the acts of 

 1875 and 1879 were introduced by the Con- 

 servative Government, the failure of which 

 was the subject of a parliamentary investiga- 

 tion in 1881 and 1882. The Torrens acts of 

 1868 and 1869 enabled the vestries to close the 

 worst houses in certain districts. Sir Richard 

 Cross's acts gave power to the Metropolitan 

 Board to buy up whole areas in unsanitary dis- 

 tricts, with due compensation to owners, and 

 imposed the duty upon it of providing accom- 

 modations for a number equal, at least, to the 

 number of tenants disturbed. The local medi- 

 cal authorities indicated immediately over a 

 score of areas which needed purification ; but 

 the vestries did not come forward with the 

 proper co-operation. The Metropolitan Board 

 proceeded to do the work in some of the con- 

 demned areas ; but the majority of cases were 

 referred back to the vestries, which not only 

 let them drop, but from that time ceased to 

 enforce the Torrens acts. The local boards 

 were deterred, from a regard for the local popu- 

 larity of their members. The consequences 

 have been, that the offenders have escaped en- 

 tirely the burden of the improvements, which 

 have been shifted to the shoulders of the rate- 

 payers, and that the improvements made under 

 these conditions are of insignificant extent. 

 The result of seven years' working of the 

 Cross act has been that improved dwellings 

 have been provided for only some 3,000 persons 

 a year, about 3 per cent of the annual incre- 

 ment of the population. There have been four- 

 teen areas, covering forty-two acres, rebuilt 

 under the act of 1875, domiciling about 20,- 

 000 people. The cost has been 1,500,000, of 

 which 24 per cent only has been reimbursed 

 by the sales of the cleared sites, leaving a net 

 loss to the treasury of 1,200,000. For the 

 whole of the expropriated land, except two or 

 three acres sold for commercial purposes, only 

 about one quarter of the cost was paid by buy- 

 ers for the purpose of erecting houses for arti- 

 sans under the conditions of the act. The 

 small portion which they were enabled to dis- 

 pose of for business sites, under the compulsory 



