384 Original Articles. [July? 



totally unfit to be used as human habitations.* Also, that a very 

 large proportion of the population lived (and for that matter still live) 

 in courts, of which many were closed at one end so as to preclude 

 ventilation, and some were almost, if not entirely, unprovided with 

 conveniences for the deposition and removal of effete substances. On 

 investigating closely the relation between these horrible dens and the 

 ratio of disease in the town of Liverpool (which has still, we believe, 

 the unenviable reputation of being, notwithstanding its natural advan- 

 tages, the most unhealthy town in the three kingdoms), Dr. Duncan 

 found that " the proportion of damp and wet cellars is greatest and 

 least in the same districts where fever reaches its maximum and 

 minimum ;"f that the prevalence of fever in the different districts 

 of Liverpool bears a general relation to the character of the courts, 

 the state of the sewerage, and the density of population in each 

 district, J and that these unhealthy conditions of existence in courts 

 and cellars were well known, and had been reported upon as far bach 

 as the year 1802,§ but that they had been allowed to remain through 

 nearly half a century, because " inferior considerations triumphed over 

 the public good." 



Thus we find at the outset that, within the memory of many who are 

 still alive, there existed in the leading seaport of Great Britain a state 

 of things worthy of some native African village, or subterranean 

 Arctic hovel, but extremely disgraceful to any civilized community ; 

 and we are forced to add, that when Dr. Duncan's report of 1843 is com- 

 pared with that of the present excellent medical officer for the same 

 town, published in 1865, we find that, although every effort is being 

 made to mitigate the old evils, many of them still exist to an extent 

 that would be incredible were they not presented to us accompanied 

 with names, places, and every detail to assure us of their presence. 



Leaving their consideration for awhile, we will direct our attention 

 for a moment to another great commercial centre, the trading capital 

 of Scotland, and in Glasgow we find that twenty years after the date of 

 Dr. Duncan's report, namely in 1863, the poorest inhabitants were 

 still in the same dreadful condition, and dragged out their wretched 

 lives under similar circumstances to those recorded of the poor of 

 Liverpool in 1843. 



Dr. Gairdner, the medical officer of health for the City of Glasgow, 

 says :||— 



" From inquiries made of one of the best informed district inspec- 

 tors of the poor, I am quite satisfied that many fever cases, even in 

 the worst possible sanitary circumstances, in the most over-crowded 

 houses, in the midst of neglect, filth, and wretchedness, are not, and 

 some of these cannot be, removed to the infirmary. I am equally well 

 satisfied that so long as this is so, and so long as healthy persons are 



* See his ' Essay on the Physical Causes of the High Kate of Mortality in 

 Liverpool.' Liverpool : Walmsley, 1843. 

 t P. 49, loc. cit. 

 % P. 63, loc. cit. 



§ By Dr. Currie. See conclusion of Dr. Duncan's Essay. 

 || See his ■ Reports for April and July, 1863.' Glasgow : Robert Anderson. 



