PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 



57 



"A report of the Central Board of Health of 

 Jamaica," in 1852, printed by order of the Assem- 

 bly of that island, we make the following extracts : 



"Generally speaking, the towns and villages are 

 straggling, and cover a large space of ground in 

 proportion to the number of houses. The streets are 

 often crooked and irregular, * * * for the most part 

 narrow, unpaved, flat or even concave, and without 

 any provision for foot passengers; too frequently they 

 become the receptacle for all sorts of filth and dirt." 

 —Page 98. 



"Yards * * * which after a rain send forth 

 streams of the most horrible description; numbers 

 of dilapidated and falling houses, useless for all 

 habitable purposes, ruined walls and remnants of 

 fences, together with unenclosed sites of pulled-down 

 houses, covered with filth and bush, complete the 

 scene of every old Jamaica township, and the outskirts 

 of the new." — Page 99. 



"In villages, and on small settlements, the huts or 

 dwellings of the laborers are composed chiefly of 

 mud walls, sometimes of wattles plastered with the 

 same. * * * In very few cases are they raised off 

 the ground, nor are they floored in any way. * * # 

 Ventilation, or the admission of fresh air, is almost 

 invariably neglected." — Page 100. 



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