392 Original Articles. [July, 



second, if at all inferior, in magnitude and importance to those of 

 either destitution or overcrowding." We will spare our readers, 

 many of whom are, we feel sure, as much pained to read, as we have 

 been to write these shocking details, the unpleasant task of wading 

 through the quagmire that follows, but to demonstrate once for all 

 that filthy, overcrowded, and otherwise unhealthy homes are the true 

 causes of the spread of pestilence, we select from Dr. Trench's ' Analy- 

 sis of Deaths from Typhus during one week,' the following cases : — 



" First death. — An office clerk. He had a wife and four children, 

 and earned 20s. a week. ' The wife supposed to take drink.' The 

 house dirty and poorly furnished." 



" Second death. — A carter. He had a wife and one child, and 

 earned on an average 20s. a week. His wife ' addicted to drink hea- 

 vily.' Of the house it is added, 'Poverty and filth in the extreme.'' " 



" Third death. — A labourer's child. The labourer's family con- 

 sisted of wife and five children, and he earns 3s. a day, occasionally. 

 ' A steady man, with a drunken wife.' ' TJie house having every appear- 

 ance of misery and filth of the lowest order' " 



" Fourth death. — A labourer's child. 'The parents have left the 

 house. They were comfortably off as regards money.' ' Continual 



drunkenness and filthy in habits.' " 



* * * * 



" Tenth death. — A market porter's cbild. The family consisted of 

 man, wife, and four children. The average earnings 12s. to 15s. per 

 week. No information respecting morals, but thinks, by appearance, 

 a deal of dissipation. Dirt and destitution in the house." 



In many of the other cases we find the words " intemperance, 

 dirt," &c. ; and it will be observed that in every case quoted, it is not 

 the drunken mother, but the unfortunate father or innocent child, 

 whose unhealthy home makes him the victim of disease and death. 

 What becomes of the wretched mother, when she is left with her tribe 

 of sickly children, and is deprived of the means of indulging in the 

 vice that has converted her into the slayer of her husband or child, 

 we leave to the imagination of our readers ! 



To some of the last-named it may appear that we have needlessly 

 dragged to light scenes of wretchedness and demoralization which 

 might have been passed over in silence, and that we should rather 

 have suggested the remedy than have entered into the details of 

 the existing disease. But, alas ! if we turn to the account of the 

 means that have been adopted for remedying the evil we find the 

 same horrible phases, and, as it may naturally be supposed, we 

 perceive that the present state of things can only be completely 

 reformed by tearing out the tree at its very root — so that whether 

 we take up the records of existing pestilence, or those of the reform- 

 atory measures that have been adopted for its eradication, the same 

 repulsive features constantly present themselves. There exists in the 

 very heart of our civilization, a loathsome sore which no dainty fin- 

 gers can heal, and no sentimental suggestions can ameliorate ; but 

 which men and women must help to root out from the social system. 

 The cures for overcrowding are to be found, in model lodging-houses, 



