Dr. Ferriar on Health. 53 



* 2. The number of damp and very ill-ventilated cellars 

 inhabited in many parts of the town is a most extensive 

 and permanent evil. . . . 



' This deplorable state of misery becomes frequently 

 the origin, and certainly supports in a great degree the 

 progress, of infectious fevers. I have been able in many 

 instances to trace the infection from cellar to cellar, and 

 to say where it might have been stopped by prudent 

 management on the part of the infected family. . . . 



' In like manner, I conceive that by building a fever 

 ward in each of the infirmary districts, and removing into 

 them the worst cases from the worst houses, the progress 

 of infection would be materially checked, and a great 

 quantity of disease and mortality would annually be pre- 

 vented. . . . 



' More frequent changes of apparel, which conduce to 

 health as well as to luxury, might perhaps be procured to 

 the poor, by encouraging the establishment of clothes- 

 clubs, which some of them have begun to form among 

 themselves. . . . 



' What I now propose to the committee can be regarded 

 but as a measure palliative of the most urgent evils, for 

 the only method of furnishing the poor with healthy habi- 

 tations, which should effectually stifle the germs of infec- 

 tion, would be that of erecting small houses, at the public 

 expense, on the plan of barracks, or caserns, to be let at 

 small rents or gratuitously, according to the circumstances 

 of the persons applying. . . . 



'The want of proper sewers in several of the streets 

 and the offal of slaughter-houses left to putrefy before the 

 doors in several places, are nuisances which deserve the 

 serious attention of the committee. 



