362 On Drainage and Sewerage of Towns. 
That fever breaks out first and becomes more prevalent 
and fatal in the neighbourhood of uncovered sewers, stag- 
nant ditches and ponds, gutters full of putrifying matter, 
nightmen’s yards, &e. That the effect of want of cleanliness 
and bad drainage, where their action is not sufficient to pro- 
duce actual fever, is shown in the disease of the digestive 
organs, and predisposes the human frame to receive some of 
the most common and fatal maladies to which it is subject. 
That persons who reside in habitations badly drained and 
subject to the influence of malaria, even if free from attacks 
of actual disease, are undergoing a process of deterioration ; 
their constitutions are injured, mothers are unable to attend 
to their children—these latter haye bad health, and the 
mortality among them is great. 
That the ability of the labouring classes to maintain 
themselves is very much diminished by disease and weak- 
ness, engendered by the causes above alluded to. 
I need only notice briefly the moral effects produced by 
such a state of things; they are, howeyer, just as injurious 
to the character of the man who is subjected to them, as to 
his physical well-being. The lowering effect produced upon 
the frame by malaria is such as drives a man, if I may use 
the term, to the use of different kinds of stimulants; and if 
his home cannot be made comfortable, he is almost com- 
pelled to resort to the public-house. 
The result of discomfort and incipient disease is often 
seen in confirmed habits of drunkenness and dissipation, 
which operate equally to the detriment of the physical and 
moral character. 
This is a brief summary of some of the effects due to the 
various causes which want of cleanliness brings into action. 
I use the term want of cleanliness advisedly, not limiting it 
to the absence of habits of personal cleanliness, but apply- 
