NA TURE 



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THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1887. 



THE HEALTH OF NATIONS. 



The Health of Nations. A Review of the Works of 

 Edwin Chadwick, with a Biographical Dissertation, 

 liy Benjamin Ward Richardson. 2 vols. (London : 

 Longmans, 1887.) 



DR. RICHARDSON'S two volumes afford much 

 matter for reflection for all those who have 

 endeavoured to improve the condition of the working 

 classes in England during the last half century. 

 They form a panegyric on Mr. Chadwick, and boldly 

 claim for him the credit of having brought forward the 

 principal social improvements of the Victorian era. 

 We think that these wide claims are somewhat to be 

 regretted, as they compel criticism where we shoufd be 

 anxious to speak only in praise ; for we are scarcely pre- 

 pared to go the length of ascribing almost entirely 

 to Mr. Chadwick's influence the vast improvements in 

 the social condition of the people which have taken place 

 during that period. 



Mr. Chadwick's active life commenced at a time when 

 the dawn of a new state of things was appearing in this 

 country, and indeed over the world ; when, by the develop- 

 ment of new means of communication and intercourse, 

 all society was beginning to be completely revolu- 

 tionized. He was a deep thinker, and seems to have 

 understood intuitively the social problems which were 

 arising ; but he undoubtedly had the despot's view that 

 whatever he thought good ought to be carried out. He 

 may be said to have begun his career as Secretary 

 to the Poor Law Board, and then as Commis- 

 sioner. He was the member of that Board who most 

 persistently urged the extension of the areas of adminis- 

 tration, and the employment of paid officers instead of 

 gratuitous service which rewarded itself by favouritism 

 and jobbery. The Poor Law as amended at that time, 

 and as worked by the then Poor Law Commissioners, was 

 devised to abolish out-door relief to the able-bodied, and 

 to apply a labour test for all able-bodied persons who 

 sought the temporary relief of the workhouse ; and Mr. 

 Chadwick's fearless administration of that rule brought 

 upon him much enmity from the supporters of the former 

 system of local jobbery. In the half century which has 

 elapsed since that time, there has undoubtedly been a 

 gradual drifting back to the old methods ; and it would 

 certainly be an opportune time to make a new inquiry 

 into the administration of the Poor Law on the lines 

 pursued by Mr. Chadwick in 1832. 



The investigations of the Poor Law Commissioners 

 brought to light the vast importance of the sanitary 

 problem, which, of all the social problems of that day, 

 was probably the one that cried most for consideration. 

 The chief advance in medical science during the hundred 

 years previous to the Victorian era seems to have re- 

 sulted from the discoveries by Jenner in regard to small- 

 pox. Beyond this the art of prevention of disease, at 

 the Queen's accession, rested mainly on the laurels 

 gathered by Lind and Meade in the eighteenth century, 

 and by Pringle during the great war. The principle of 

 Vol. xxxvl— No. 930. 



prevention enunciated by these early pioneers still re- 

 mains the foundation of our sanitary system ; but the 

 practical application of those doctrines has received an 

 enormous extension during the last fifty years ; and the 

 various essays and reports by Mr. Chadwick, collected by 

 Dr. Richardson, show that he was undoubtedly the first 

 person who made it his business to impress the nation 

 with the fact that public health was a public question. 

 From the official position occupied by Mr. Chadwick 

 during the earlier years of the Queen's reign, he had an 

 immense influence, which he exercised with all the energy 

 of his nature, in bringing to the front the question of 

 public health ; and it may be safely affirmed that the 

 remarkable Report of the Poor Law Commissioners in 

 1842, which was drawn up by Mr. Chadwick, laid down 

 almost all the sanitary principles upon which the sanitary 

 legislation of the last forty years has been based. 



The Report of 1842 led to the Health of Towns Com- 

 mission and other inquiries into public health, and paved 

 the way for the Public Health Act of 1848. In one sense 

 Mr. Chadwick was admirably adapted for this service. 

 He was gifted with indomitable perseverance, and with a 

 clear insight into what he wanted to obtain. He sought 

 nothing for himself. His only object was to promote the 

 views which he considered beneficial to the public, and to 

 compel their adoption in whatever way he could. But 

 unfortunately he was not gifted with that most valuable 

 quality which may go a long way to secure results 

 which talent alone may fail to obtain, viz. tact. Through 

 this quality alone many of those changes and improve- 

 ments, which necessarily injuriously affect some persons 

 or classes of the community, can be brought into opera- 

 tion. Had Mr. Chadwick possessed tact, and been satis- 

 fied with obtaining reform in instalments and by slow 

 degrees, he would probably have become one of the 

 greatest powers in the country. But Dr. Richard- 

 son's description of the way in which Mr. Chadwick 

 acted at the Poor Law Board shows how impossible 

 it was for a man of his nature to remain long in a public 

 department. 



Whilst, however, Mr. Chadwick had the foresight to 

 shadow out, in the Report published by the Poor Law 

 Commissioners in 1842, all the improvements which have 

 taken place up till this time, the working out of the 

 various problems has been due to many others besides 

 himself : and, prepared as we are to award a full meed 

 of praise to Mr. Chadwick for his foresight and energy, 

 by which he, and he alone, made the health of the nation a 

 public question, we regret that the author of these volumes 

 should have somewhat ignored the efforts of many of those 

 who were mainly instrumental in raising the superstructure 

 on the foundations laid by Mr. Chadwick. For it cannot 

 be denied that in the early efforts at sanitation made 

 by the Poor Law Commissioners, and enforced by 

 the Board of Health, many grievous mistakes were com- 

 mitted. For instance, in the Report of 1842 the Poor 

 Law Commissioners recommended, and their recom- 

 mendation was largely adopted, that all refuse should be 

 at once discharged into the drains and sewers, as the 

 cheapest means of getting rid of it -from the houses, 

 although the sewers were avowedly at that time not con- 

 structed to remove the faecal matter, and no provision 

 was made to prevent it from lodging in them as foetid 



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