211 



568 additional yearly deaths by scarlatina, measles, small- 

 pox, &c. 



Dr. Southwood Smith, Physician to the London Fever 

 Hospital, says to the Commissioners appointed by Act of 

 Parliament, to inquire into the sanatory condition of the 

 large towns in England, " That the children of the un- 

 " drained districts are more liable than the children of the 

 " higher classes, to the exanthematous fevers (L e, acute 

 " fevers, accompanied by a rash upon the skin, as scarlet 

 " fever, small-pox, measles, &c.) The poisonous condition 



of the districts in which they spend the first weeks, 

 " months, and years of their existence, predisposes them 

 " to these dangerous diseases, and renders such diseases 

 " fearfully mortal." 



Dr. Forbes, in the British and Foreign Review for October 

 last, says (p. 511) " All the reports made to the Health of 

 Towns Commission show that bad sewerage, and an excessive 

 number of deaths among children under five years of age, are 

 coincident. There is no exception to this principle. Glasgow, 

 of course, is no exception; in 1841 and 1842, they were 44 

 and 49 per cent. In Liverpool, 53 per cent, die at this age. 



We may, therefore, conclude that the superior natural 

 drainage of Halifax and Huddersfield, as well as of the 

 sandstone district of Wakefield, aids and assists a superior 

 ventilation of houses, in afi'ording a greater immunity to 

 those districts from these epidemic diseases of children. 

 With respect to typhus fever, it does not appear that the 

 superior natural drainage exercises any very great power in 

 checking the ravages of this dire disease, for there is very 

 nearly as much (the difi'erence being only 64 persons per 

 annum) typhus in the districts of Halifax, Huddersfield, and 

 Wakefield, as in Leeds and SheflSield, and considerably more 

 in every one of these places than in London. Medical men, 

 however, are not agreed of what the predisposing causes 



