276 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Sept. 



sed for wasliing, cooking, and manufacturing, however filthy it may have 

 Pecome, and all the refuse and excreinental matter of every kind, accuraulat- 

 'ng hour by hour, and day by day, and year by year, except so far as it may 

 be partially removed by the olTensive and degrading process of manual labour, 

 must be left to rot on the surface, and to sink into the soil, liable to be stirred 

 up anew by each shower that falls, and ready to yield to the sun as it shines, 

 and to the wind as it blows, vapour charged and tainted with disease and 

 death. 



We find an intelligent physician giving it as his opinion, and proving it by 

 a very remarkable Table of Mortality, that the true cause of the periodical 

 cholera, so generally ascribed to the abundance of fruit, is to be found in " the 

 miasmata evolved from stagnant water, or impure drains, by the heat of 

 summer." 



As to the wasteful expense incurred by conferring monopolies on water 

 companies, it is shewn, that in Liverpool the public are paying six times the 

 cost incurred by the company. And as to the supply thus exorbitantly paid 

 for, " In the poorer neighbourhoods there is usually a cock in each court, and 

 the inhabitants carry it and store it in jngs or wooden vessels, from day to 

 day. But compared with the dense population the supply is totally inadequate. 



We regret that we are obliged to pass over mucli that is interesting' 

 but the following passages recapitulating the miscellaneous unhealthy 

 influences are so forcible that we cannot venture to omit them. 



From the employments of peace let us turn for a moment to the scenes of 

 warfare. If ever a town is to the utmost degree unhealthy, it is a town in a 

 state of siege, or of blockade ; its homes doubly crowded by its defenders and 

 their retinue, and the wounds which man purposely inflicts on man added to 

 the ills which by negligence be entails upon himself. But not only besieged 

 towns and fortresses, camps also in the open country, and barracks in the 

 healthy suburbs of a town, have often given deadly proof of the injury to 

 health sure to arise, however sound men may be in constitution, however 

 well clothed and well fed, if they abide in a site which wants drainage, or 

 where their refuse is not duly removed, or where there is no adequate supply 

 of fresh air. Not to go back to ages when these matters were never so much as 

 thought of, the records of the last great European war would prove, if they were 

 examined with a view to this point, that however many lives were lost in 

 battle, many more were sacrified in swamps and in crowded hospitals, be- 

 neath suffocating tents, or between the decks of heavy laden transports. A 

 case is mentioned incidentally, in the evidence, of " 2,000 British seamen 

 dying in one fleet from fever and want of ventilation." The state of things, 

 till of late, universal on board of ship, is indeed one of the most striking 

 proofs of how much health depends on due attention to the supply of pure 

 water and fresh air. However exhilirating the atmosphere on deck, the 

 amount of sickness, often very great indeed, always bears proportion to the 

 closeness and the filthiness belovT. And they who are borne round the world 

 by winds upon the ocean become victims of "ship fever," as it is called, be- 

 cause in the interior of the vessel, where they eat, and rest, and sleep, they 

 stint themselves in fresh air to breathe, and in clean water to wash with, 

 whilst they have an unlimited supply of both close at hand. 



Even when the individuals who generate the poison remain free from its 

 effects, they may communicate the fei-er to others, as was the case in what is 

 known, from that circumstance, as the Black Assize at Oxford in 1477, where 

 the Lord Chief Baron, the sherifli', and about 300 more, (all who were present 

 iu the court,) were infected by the prisoners, and died within forty hours; 

 and also in the famous Old Bailey session of May, 1750, in which most of 

 those present who occupied one side of the court, (including the Lord Mayor, 

 two of the judges, and one of the aldermen on the bench,) so as to receive 

 the emanatious from the prisoners' bodies, contracted fatal typhus. 



On the repulsive subject to wliicli we have alluded concerning the 

 effects of crowding large uunibeis of the poor into confined places, the 

 writer lias most pertinent remarks. The picture which lie presents is 

 a melancholy one indeed, but there is no room for hoping that it is 

 overcharged. The facts presented are decisive as to the extent of 

 the evil — the records of demoralisation in this pamphlet, it is not ne- 

 cessary for us to repeat; it is enough that they have been published 

 once. We prefer rather to give in Mr. Girdlestone's own wordsi, a 

 general statement, fully authorized by the evidence before him. 



We are thus brought to the lowest point of moral degradation, the cor- 

 ruption and decay of natural affection ; that havoc of the conjugal and pa- 

 rental ties which severs the first bonds of all human society. Henceforth 

 there is no foundation left for the true principle of social and political mo- 

 rality, namely, the love of each man for his neighbour as a fellow member of 

 the body politic. Nor is it possible that this state of things can extend 

 widely, or last long, in one class of the community, without in some measure 

 infecting all the rest. Repulsiveness begets repulsion ; hate, hatred ; and 

 jealousy, suspicion. In the lack of all neighbourly communion between the 

 employed and their employers, there is room for a state of feeling which is 

 described by one of the witnesses as common among men " not necessarily 

 hardhearted." " They form a low estimate of the value of life and health. 

 A man dies, and another replaces him without cost to his employer : hut if 

 it were a horse or a dog, the owner wovdd have to pay for a new one. This 

 makes all the dilference." And as to the neighbourly visitation of the poor 

 by the wealthy, the surrounding circumstances of indecency often absolutely | 

 preclude the gentle and soothing agency of such kindness on the part of 



female neighbours. Independently indeed of this hindrance, the general un. 

 healthiness of the atmosphere of towns has a most injurious efl'ect on the re- 

 lations of society, by inducing all who can afford it, including in some cases 

 even the clergy and the meilical practitioners, to remove into the suburbs. 

 And yet the actual presence, and the familiarly known habits of a Christian 

 family, the sanctifying influences of a Christian home, as an accessible centre 

 of the charities of life, and an energetic source of their diffusion, these are 

 amongst the chief means of doing good to our fellow creatures, whatever be 

 our rank or calling ; for these no subscriptions to societies, no attemlance at 

 committee meetings, can avail as substitutes; these tell better even thaa 

 visiting in private, or than preaching in public. 



The tables at the end of the pamphlet exhibit, by direct ealcuUtiot7, 

 the effects of drainage and ventilation on health in large towns. 

 Different schemes for ventilation, and methods of improved sewerage 

 are also exhibited, but these have for the most part been already laid 

 before our readers. We must therefore refer those who are desirous 

 for further information, and are unwilling to examine the voluminous ■ 

 Official Reports, to the excellent abstract contained in the present 

 pamphlet. The following eloquent reflections with which it concludes 

 shall be our last extract. 



There was indeed a country once, in which every man dwelt under his own 

 vine, and under his own fig tree; there was a law by which no man's portion 

 of land could be permanently alienated ; and there was a woe denounced 

 against those who "join house to house, and lay field to field, till there be no 

 place, that they may dwell alone in the miilst of the earth." I need not say 

 what commonwealth that was, nor whence that civil polity was derived, nor 

 how differently our own is constituted, nor how much we lose by wholly 

 overlooking those divinely revealed principles of society, which, with due ac- 

 commodation to varying circumstances, must ever be of value to all mankind. 

 Enough that we bear in mind this consequence of our own system of things, 

 namely, that with few exceptions, the working man cannot ever have the in- 

 terest of owner, or even of leaseholder, in the place of his abode ; and hence 

 has no voice in settling its original construction, nor any power to alter it, or 

 to adapt it to his wants. So much the more obviously is it the duty of the 

 lan<llord to study, not simply his own gain, but the health, the convenience, 

 and the decent habits of his tenantry. .\nd so much the more is it incum- 

 bent on the higher classes of society, generally, to devise and to promote the 

 means of bringing it to pass, that if a man be diligent, frugal, sober, honest, 

 and desirous of living in a healthy and decent home, he shall at least have 

 the option of procuring one. This is at present a sheer impossibility, to 

 many of those who dwell in towns, and to not a few dwellers in the country; 

 a fact which ought to be well weighed by those whom it most deeply con- 

 cerns, the great proprietors of the soil. And to those who are merely occu- 

 piers, and who would fain have better dwellings to occupy, I would say. This 

 is a point much better worth your striving after earnestly, than those various 

 questionable objects, to which your attention is apt to be turned by your de- 

 luded or designing leaders. Be assured, that your best way to emerge from 

 the hardships of your present condition, is, first, to practise, under any cir- 

 cumstances, honesty, sobriety, frugality, and diligence ; and nest to direct 

 your energies to objects, in which all classes, and all parties, must admit the 

 reasonableness and justice of your claims. Such must be your contribution 

 to a cause, to which I hope that all will contribute something. For my own 

 part, if I can do little more than write in your behalf, I feel thankful to have 

 been led to do thus much. I know not how I could have better spent the 

 time, than in digesting these letiers from the voluminous Report on the un- 

 healthy condition of your dwellings. Nor could I by any other means have 

 satisfied myself, after evidence so clear of evils so painful to contemplate, ex- 

 cept by doing the best I could towards promoting their redress. 



It is clear that the subject of these pages must occupy far more at- 

 tention and more active exertion than have hitherto been devoted to 

 it. The inadequacy of private benevolence to remove the evil is evi- 

 dent, and it is intolerable that any dissension should occur to delay the 

 enactment of suitable legislative provisions. Whatever may be the 

 heat of political discussion, the health — the morality — the existence 

 of the people is a question in which there can be but one party — tbe 

 nation. 



The Fanner's Boy and other Rural Tales. By Bloomfield. With 

 Illustrations by Cooptu, Taylor, and Webster. London : Van 

 Voorst, 1, Paternoster Row. ISmo. 



The above work has been sent to iis from the publisher, but the 

 subject does not come within the province of this journal ; the book is, 

 moreover, a reprint of the known works of Bloomfield. We can, how- 

 ever, bear testimony to the great beauty of the vignette woodcuts with 

 which these poems are adorned. They absolutely rival the sharpness 

 and delicacy of steel engravings. The typographical elegance, also, 

 of this work is in no way inferior to that which characterizes the other 

 books of the same publisher. 



