of typhus really consist ; some attributing them to want 

 of draining, bad ventilation, and the accumulation of filth, 

 in a word, to malaria ; while others again deny their 

 influence. Of the former are Dr. Southwood Smith and 

 the other medical men examined by the Commissioners ; 

 while of the latter are Dr. Graves, of Dublin, Professor 

 Alison, and Dr. Watts, of Glasgow. And certainly the fact 

 that in the well-ventilated, drained, and airy districts of 

 Halifax and Huddersfield, there is nearly as much typhus 

 as in Leeds and Sheffield, affords upon an extensive scale 

 the strongest evidence that malaria is very little concerned 

 in its propagation. As the Commissioners will no doubt 

 recommend Parliament to act upon the evidence afforded 

 in our large towns, it may be well to give one or two 

 opinions of the medical men with respect to the metropolis 

 and other places. 



Dr. Southwood Smith, Physician to the London Fever 

 Hospital, says, In every district in which fever returns 

 frequently and prevails extensively, there is uniformly bad 

 sewerage, a bad supply of water, a bad supply of scavengers, 

 and a consequent accumulation of filth ; and I have been 

 accustomed to express the fact in this way. If you trace 

 down the fever districts on a map, and then compare that 

 map with the map of the Commissioners of Sewers, you 

 will find that wherever the Commissioners of Sewers have 

 not been, there fever is prevalent ; and on the contrary, 

 wherever they have been, there fever is comparatively 

 absent." He is again asked, " Are you aware that the 

 rate of mortality is actually found to be nearly double in 

 some of the neglected districts in the East, compared with 

 what it is in the Western part of London ?" "I am ; 

 and this interesting and important fact is dependant on 

 several circumstances, and not on any one cause. Thus, 

 a large portion of the people who reside in the Western 



