386 



NA TURE 



\AugMst 25, 1887 



mud, or passing into and polluting the water-courses : 

 indeed, the Report stated that that danger was a 

 smaller evil than the retention of refuse in the houses. 

 This recommendation entailed a new class oi evils, 

 which has resulted in a very large expenditure and 

 loss of life. No doubt the removal of refuse in this way 

 was fairly simple, and certainly economical, until it 

 created new evils whose remedy was very costly ; but no 

 one can say that the retention of the refuse in the houses 

 might not have been prohibited, and the removal effected 

 in some other manner, which, although possibly more 

 expensive at the time, would not have been followed by 

 disastrous consequences. 



As an instance of the evils which the want of fore- 

 sight entailed in the earHer introduction of the water- 

 carriage system, the drainage of Croydon may be men- 

 tioned. This was executed directly according to the 

 then views of the Board of Health. Soon after its in- 

 troduction a most virulent fever broke out in Croydon, 

 owing to the fact that the system totally ignored the ven- 

 tilation of the sewers in any other way excepting into the 

 houses themselves. 



The application of sanitary science to practical life has 

 arrived at its present state like most English matters, 

 where action comes first and reflection afterwards ; that 

 is to say, in the elaboration of the early ideas at a great ex- 

 penditure of money and experience, many blunders have 

 been committed and many failures have ensued. The 

 present condition of the practical application of sanitary 

 science to the health of the nation rests upon the labours 

 of many men. But although we may perhaps regret that 

 Dr. Richardson's volumes attribute to Mr. Chadwick a 

 larger share in the social changes which have taken place 

 during the last fifty years than he is actually entitled to, 

 yet all sanitarians are ready and willing to accord to him 

 a very high place as a leader in the sanitary movement 

 during Queen Victoria's reign. So long as he retained 

 his office at the Poor Law Board, or in the General Board 

 of Health, Mr. Chadwick laboured unceasingly to lay the 

 foundations of our present system of public health ; but 

 in the erection of the superstructure we owe our gradual 

 approach to practical perfection to many others, of whom 

 it is only necessary to mention two or three. 



Dr. Farr placed the vital statistics of the country upon 

 a scientific basis. Mr. Humphry tells us that Dr. Farr 

 received, in 1838, his appointment under the first Regis- 

 trar-General, in consequence of his papers on benevolent 

 funds, life assurance in health and disease, and various 

 other statistical papers, and on the recommendation of 

 Sir James Clark. Dr. Sutherland was an energetic 

 worker in the Health of Towns Commission, and he, with 

 Miss Nightingale, was the chief adviser of Mr. Sidney 

 Herbert in his efforts to place army sanitation on a sound 

 basis ; and he has ever since continued as sanitary adviser 

 of the War Office and India Office. Sir Robert Rawlin- 

 sonis acknowledged to be the highest authority on modern 

 sewerage. Sir John Simon began his admirable reports 

 with the Public Health Act of 1848, and continued them 

 until soon after the formation of the Local Government 

 Board in 1875. 



Having thus briefly mentioned some of those to whom 

 credit should be given as prominent among the origin- 

 ators of the health movement which has prevailed in 



England during the last fifty years, we may consi( 

 what are the broad principles which underlie the repc 

 and papers of Mr. Chadwick, edited by Dr. Richards 

 and which, indeed, are the doctrines accepted to-c 

 by most sanitarians. Practically, they advocate St 

 socialism ; and it is impossible to maintain large co 

 munities in a due state of health and a due condition 

 morality in any other way than under some form of St 

 socialism. Our population is aggregating more and nn 

 into towns ; but how little do we attend to the decenc 

 or the amenities of life in the masses of population 

 allow to assemble ! A leading sanitarian some fo 

 years ago wrote ; — 



"If there be citizens so destitute that they can affc 

 to live only where they must straightway die — renting I 

 twentieth straw-heap in some lightless fever-bin, 

 squatting amid rotten soakage, or breathing from 1 

 cesspool and the sewer ; so destitute that they can h 

 no water — that milk and bread must be impoverished 

 meet their means of purchase — that the drugs sold thi 

 for sickness must be rubbish or poison ; surely no civili/ 

 community dare avert itself from the care of this abj( 

 orphanage. 



"It may be that competition has screwed down ther; 

 of wages below what will purchase indispensable food a 

 wholesome lodgment. But all labour below that mark 

 masked pauperism. Whatever the employer saves 

 gained at the public expense. When, under such circu 

 stances, the labourer, or his wife or child, spends an oc< 

 sional month or two in the hospital, that some fc 

 infection may work itself out, or that the impending 1( 

 of an eye or a limb may be averted by animal food ; 

 when he gets various aid from 'his Board of Guardians, 

 all sorts of preventable illness, and eventually for the < 

 penses of interment, it is the public that, too late for t 

 man's health or independence, pays the arrears of wa 

 which should have hindered this suffering and sorrow. 



" Before wages can safely be left to find their own Ic 

 in the struggles of an unrestricted competition, the 1; 

 should be rendered absolute and available in safeguar 

 for the ignorant poor — first, against those deterioratio 

 of staple food which enable the retailer to disguise star\ 

 tion to his customers by apparent cheapenings of bul 

 secondly, against those conditions of lodgment which i 

 inconsistent with decency and health." 



Since these words were written it has been made t 

 caie of the community to remove refuse, to insure a go 

 water-supply, to prevent adulteration of food, and to clc 

 unhealthy dwellings ; but many wretched dwellings exi 

 and starvation wages still remain a disgrace to a coum 

 which calls itself Christian. The whole of Mr. Chf 

 wick's papers, and indeed the arguments of all the m< 

 advanced sanitarians, are a protest against the doctri 

 of "laissez-faire," which emanated from the school 

 political economists in the earlier part of the centu 

 And we are daily becoming more and more alive to 

 fact that this doctrine of " laissez-faire " is incompati , 

 with the healthy existence of large communities. Ti 

 form of socialism is one that should commend ifci 

 to all thinking men, for it is quite certain that in tht 

 days of advanced intercourse and universal educatio ji 

 helot class consisting of the many living in misery sjl 

 by side with the few living in luxury is a condition!* 

 things which cannot be permanently maintained. Tn 

 fact that Mr. Chadwick was the first person to brjl 

 this subject prominently forward and to compel Pm( 



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