398 [Assembly 



are more crowded, they live more in cellars, their apartments are 

 less ventilated, and more exposed to vapors and other emanations, 

 &c., hence, ventilation, sewerage, and all other sanitary regulations, 

 are more necesary for them, and would produce a greater comparative 

 change in their condition. The influence of drainage upon the health 

 anil lives of the population, is too well known to require, at this day, 

 any argument. Almost every one has heard of the effects of marshy 

 soil, in country situations, producing intermittent fever, fever and 

 ague, and of the entire disappearance of the disease, simply by 

 draining off the water and permitting the ground to become dry. Its 

 results in populous cities are equally well marked. The last instance 

 which has come to my knowledge is one stated by Professor Buck- 

 land, that in St. Margaret, Leicester, England, containing 22,000 

 inhabitants, it appeared that one portion of it was effectually drained, 

 some parts but partially so, and others not at all. In the latter, the 

 average duration of life is thirteen years and a half, while in the 

 same parish, where the drainage is better, though only partial, the 

 average is twenty-two years and a half, showing the frightful effects 

 of a bad atmosphere. It were easy to quote several instances, some 

 important ones, from London statistics, but it is unnecessary, as I 

 presume the fact will not be disputed, that sewerage and its kindred 

 measures, exert a striking influence over the condition and duration 

 of human life. 



The investigations to which I have briefly alluded, as so necessary 

 and desirable for this city, have been carried on in other countries, 

 with a degree of enthusiasm, sustained by talent and learning, which 

 does honor to philanthropy. No one can rise from the perusal of 

 the works of Edwin Chadwick of London, or of Parent Du Chatelet 

 of Paris, or of many others who have labored in this field of human- 

 ity, without feeling a portion of the ardor which inspires them, and 

 wishing that he had been thrown into the same pursuit, that some of 

 the leaves of the same laurel might encircle his own brow. It is 

 the cause of humanity, of the poor, the destitute, the degraded, of the 

 virtuous made vicious by the force of circumstances, which they are 

 now investigating and exposing to the knowledge of others. 



It is often said that " one half the world does not know how the 

 other half lives." The labor of raising the veil which now separates 

 the two halves, by which the misery and degradation of the one, have 

 been concealed from the view of the other, has been theirs and their 

 associates. Howard, called by distinction the Philanthropist, revealed 

 to the gaze of the astonished multitude the interior of the prisons of 



