EFFECTS OF SUSPENSION OR DEFICIENCY OF RESPIRATION. 539 



accumulation of such exhalations, and that this accumulation exerts precisely 

 the same influence upon the spread of zymotic disease (as will presently appear) 

 that is afforded by the diffusion of a sewer-atmosphere through the respired air, 

 it scarcely admits of reasonable doubt that the pernicious effect of over-crowding 

 is exerted yet more through its tendency to promote putrescence in the system, 

 than through the obstruction it creates to the due elimination of carbonic acid 

 from the blood. For it is to be remembered, that whilst the complete oxidation 

 of the effete matters will carry them off by the lungs in the form of carbonic 

 acid and water, leaving urea and other highly-azotized products to pass off by 

 the kidneys, an imperfect oxidation will only convert them into those peculiarly 

 offensive products which characterize the fecal excretion ( 458). * 



578. Of the remarkable tendency of the Respiration of an atmosphere charged 

 with the emanations of the Human body, to favor the spread of Zymotic dis- 

 eases, a few characteristic examples will now be given. All those who have had 

 the widest opportunities of studying the conditions which predispose to the in- 

 vasion of Cholera, are agreed that overcrowding is among the most potent of 

 these ; and the "Report of the General Board of Health/' on the late epidemic, 

 contains numerous cases in which this was most evident, of which the two fol- 

 lowing may be selected. In the autumn of 1849, a sudden and violent outbreak 

 of Cholera occurred in the Workhouse of the town of Taunton; no case of 

 cholera having previously existed, and none subsequently presenting itself, 

 among the inhabitants of the town in general, though diarrhoaa was prevalent 

 to a considerable extent. The building was altogether badly constructed, and 

 the ventilation deficient ; but this was especially the case with the school-rooms, 

 there being only about 68 cubic feet of air for each girl, and even less for the 

 boys. On Nov. 3, one of the inmates was attacked with the disease; in ten 

 minutes from the time of the seizure, the sufferer passed into a state of hopeless 

 collapse; within the space of forty-eight hours from the first attack, 42 cases 

 and 19 deaths took place ; and in the course of one week, 60 of the inmates, or 

 nearly 22 per cent, of the entire number, were carried off, whilst almost every 

 one of the survivors suffered more or less severely from cholera or diarrhoea. 

 Among the fatal cases were those of 25 girls and 9 boys ; and the compara- 

 tive immunity of the latter, notwithstanding the yet more limited dimensions 

 of their school-room, affords a remarkable confirmation of the general doctrine 

 here advanced; for we learn that, although "good and obedient in other respects, 

 they could not be kept from breaking the windows/' so that many of them pro- 

 bably owed their lives to the better ventilation thus established. Now in the 

 jail of the same town, in which every prisoner is allowed from 819 to 935 

 cubic feet of air, and this is continually being renewed by an efficient system 

 of ventilation, there was not the slightest indication of the epidemic influence 

 (Op. cit., pp. 37 and 71). The other case to be here cited, is that of Millbank 

 Prison, in which the good effects of the diminution of previous overcrowding 

 were extremely marked. In the month of July, 1849, when the epidemic was 

 becoming general and severe in the Metropolis (especially in the low ill-drained 

 parts on both sides of the river, in the midst of which this prison is situated), 

 the number of male prisoners was reduced, by the transfer of a large propor- 

 tion of them to Shorncliff barracks, from 1039 to 402; the number of female 

 prisoners, on the other hand, not only underwent no reduction, but was augmented 



1 It is a remarkable confirmation of Prof. Liebig's analogy between the imperfect oxi- 

 dation of eifete matters within the body, and that combination in a lamp or furnace insuf- 

 ficiently supplied with air, which causes a deposit of soot and various empyreurnatic products, 

 that a set of acids have been found by Stadeler in the urine of the cow, bearing a remark- 

 able analogy to well-known products of destructive distillation, and one of them actually 



identical with the carbolic acid previously known as one of the ingredients of smoke. 



See Prof. Gregory's "Handbook of Organic Chemistry," p. 450. 



