Proceedings of the Polytechnic Association. 893 



putrescent matter in the body, must be admitted as at least a con- 

 current agency ; and, when it is borne in mind that the atmosphere 

 in which a number of persons have been confined for some time, 

 becomes actually offensive to the smell in consequence of the accu- 

 mulation of such exhalations ; and that this accumulation exerts pre- 

 cisely the same influence upon the spread of a zymotic disease, as 

 that which is afforded by the diffusion of a sewer atmosphere through 

 the respired air. It scarcely admits of reasonable doubt, that the per- 

 nicious effect of over-crowding is exerted yet more through its tend- 

 ency to promote putresence in the system, than through the obstruction 

 it creates to the due elimination of a carbonic acid from the blood. 

 For, it is to be remembered, that wliilst the complete oxydation of 

 the effete matters will carry them off" from the lungs, in the form of 

 carbonic acid and water, leaving urea and other highly azotized pro- 

 ducts to pass off' by the kidneys, an imperfect oxydation will only 

 convert them into those peculiarly offensive products which charac- 

 terize the faecal excretion. 



" Of the remarkable tendency of the respiration of an atmosphere 

 charged with the emanation of the human body to favor the spread 

 of zymotic diseases, a few characteristic examples will be given. All 

 those who have had the widest opportunities of studying the condi- 

 tions which predispose totlie invasion of cholera are agreed that over- 

 crowding is amongst the most potent of these ; and, from the numer- 

 ous cases in which this was most evident, contained in the ' Report 

 of the General Board of Health' on the. epidemic of 1848-9, the two 

 following may be selected : 



"In the autumn of 1849 a sudden and violent outbreak of cholera 

 occurred in the workhouse of the town of Taunton ; no case of cholera 

 having previously existed, or subsequently presenting itself, among 

 the inhabitants of the town in general, although diarrhoea was preva- 

 lent to a considerable extent. The building was altogether badly 

 constructed, and the ventilation deficient ; but this was especially the 

 case with the school-rooms, there being only about sixty-eight cubic 

 feet of air for each girl, and even less for the boys. On I^ovember 3d 

 one of the inmates was attacked with the disease. In ten minutes 

 from the time of the seizure the sufferer passed into a state of hopeless 

 collapse. Within the space of forty-eight hours from the first attack 

 forty-two eases and nineteen deaths took place ; and, in the course of one 

 week, sixty of the inmates, or nearly twenty-two per cent of the entire 

 number, were carried off ; while almost everv one of the survivors suf- 



