INTRODUCTION. 7 



which, it may be safely affirmed, on the basis of actual expe- 

 rience, that the annual mortality may be reduced, by such 

 efficient sanitary measures as render the dwellings of the mass 

 of the population fit for human -habitation ; this would give 

 an annual mortality for England and Wales of 260,000, 

 showing a saving of 180,000 lives annually in that one por- 

 tion of the British empire. And it must be remembered 

 that this amount of mortality represents a vastly greater 

 amount of sickness, since, for every death, there are numerous 

 cases of severe illness ; so that it would be scarcely too much 

 to affirm that at least a million out of the whole number of 

 such cases annually occurring, are preventible, like the 

 180,000 deaths, by adequate provisions for the supply of pure, 

 air and water, and by efficient sewerage for the removal of 

 decomposing matters. It cannot be doubted that, even in 

 a mere pecuniary point of view, the expense of such arrange- 

 ments would be amply compensated by the prevention of a 

 vast amount of that loss of productive labour of various 

 kinds, which is at present due to disease ; and, considered on 

 the large scale, as a question of social economy, the import- 

 ance of sanitary legislation can scarcely be over-rated. But 

 much cannot be expected to be done in this direction, until 

 such an intelligent public opinion shall have been created, by 

 the general diffusion of sound physiological information, as 

 shall be sufficiently forcible to bear down the self-interested 

 opposition of those, who do not see that the value of their 

 property will be permanently increased at least in proportion 

 to the amount of money judiciously expended upon it. 



A more remarkable illustration of what is to be effected by 

 sanitary improvements can scarcely be adduced, than that 

 which is presented by the comparison between the locality 

 termed "the Potteries," in the immediate vicinity of Ken- 

 sington, and the " Model Lodging-houses," which have been 

 erected in various parts of the Metropolis. The site of the 

 group of dwellings constituting the former is far from being 

 insalubrious in itself, and rows of handsome houses are rising 

 up in its immediate neighbourhood; but the condition of 

 these dwellings is most filthy. A few years ago, as many as 

 3,000 pigs were kept in this locality (the number has since 

 been somewhat diminished) ; and the boiling of fat and other 

 offal, which is carried on by some of the pig-feeders, some- 



