14 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
I cannot conclude these observations without referring to the 
use which may be made of them in our own city, notorious for the 
number of its dark and narrow lanes, and for the thousands of 
unlighted and unventilated dwellings which they contain. The 
devoted men who venture daily into these abodes of malaria and 
uncleanness, can alone describe to us the Cimmerian darkness and 
the tainted atmosphere in which their pallid occupants live, and 
move, and have their being. They alone can paint the harrowing 
scenes which disease and destitution present to them in these 
joyless homes. To what extent evils like these can be remedied 
it is a sacred duty to inquire. To what extent they will be re- 
medied by the large and expensive sanitary measures now contem- 
plated, we do not venture to predict ; but it is very obvious, that 
the upper and lower ends of the offensive lanes, which are to be 
intersected by the new streets, can derive little benefit from them 
in respect of ventilation, and none whatever in giving additional 
li srht to the houses which remain. 
O 
The only effectual mode of ventilating and lighting a dark and 
crowded apartment is, to strike out a large opening in the wall for 
the fresh admission of air, and to construct the window which is to 
close it so as to give the most copious entrance to the light of the 
sky. A process so cheap, so easily executed, and so obviously effec- 
tual, ought to be the very first step in any measure of sanitary 
reform ; and it is clearly one which, if not effected by the philan- 
thropy of the public, ought to be enjoined by Act of Parliament upon 
the house proprietors individually, or upon the citizens at large. 
In giving expression to these opinions I did not expect to have 
them instantly, and in every point, confirmed by one of those 
devoted men to whom I have referred as the visitors of the dwell- 
ings of the poor. “ The closer,” says this anonymous philan- 
thropist, in an article published within these few days,* “ we look 
into the state of the homes of the poor in this city, the greater 
seems the extent of misery and degradation to be grappled with, 
and the more are we convinced that any sanitary scheme which 
does not contemplate the internal improvement of the dwelling- 
houses as one of its chief objects, will never go to the root of the 
* “Edinburgh Evening Courant,” Nov. 21, 1806. 
