218 



and confined alleys and courts, existing in various parts 

 of the town. The low terms upon which the small houses 

 and rooms can be obtained, causes them to be crowded with a 

 population negligent of cleanliness ; and it ought to occasion 

 no surprise that there is greater sickness and death among 

 them compared with those living in larger dwellings, having 

 a freer circulation of air^ He also states that the effect of 

 this bad supply of pure air is most lamentably conspicuous 

 among children. 



It is also well known that you may place cases labouring 

 under malignant typhus, in a room with other infirmary 

 patients, provided there be good ventilation, with perfect 

 impunity. The experiments were made in the infirmary of 

 Edinburgh, and detailed p. 286 of the Report by Dr. Arnott. 

 It was found in the wards occupied by fever patients only, 

 that the nurses and other attendants rarely escaped infec- 

 tion ; but when such patients were scattered about so as to 

 dilute the poison, the attendants remained safe, as did also 

 neighbours in the beds about them ; proving that dilution 

 of the contagious poison, by scattering the patients, as 

 well as the complete ventilation of a fever ward, affords 

 safety. 



Dr. Arnott says, it is known that a canary bird, 

 suspended near the top of a curtained bedstead in which 

 people have slept, will, generally, owing to the impurity of 

 the air, be found dead in the morning ; and small close 

 rooms in the habitations of the poor are sometimes as ill- 

 ventilated as the curtained bedstead. But small badly- 

 ventilated dwelUngs are favourable to the production of 

 consumptive disease, which destroys more adults than any 

 other complaint. There is no doubt that the proximate 

 cause of phthisis is tuberculous deposits in the upper por- 

 tions of the lungs, which consist of albuminous fluid mixed 

 with imperfectly developed cells or cyloblasts, but which, 



