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contributed 140 ; choleraic affections ( including the epidemic of 1849 ) , 196 ; scarlet fever , 76 ; small pox , 40 ; erysipelas , 30 ; the acute , nervous , and mucous diseases of children , 572 ; then measles , hooping cough , and croup , 82 ; so that diseases of infancy alone had yielded an average of 1242 deaths , or nearly twofifths of the entire mortality . It was a curious fact that while in the healthier districts the winter was the most fatal time of the year , in conseq uence of the
ravages which inclement ¦ weather made upon the aged and feehle , those ravages were completely overmastered in the unhealthiest districts , and the rate of mortality was highest in summer . The unfavourable effects of civilized and City life upon the health was shown by the circumstance that not one-eighth of the 15 , 597 persons who had died within the jurisdiction of the commissioners during the last five years , had reached the threescore years and ten which are allotted to
man . ^ Passing from statistics to the prospects of the City during the apprehended visitation of cholera , Mr . Simon congratulates the commissioners on the fact that there had been a diminution of mortality to the extent of four per cent , since the sanitary acts of the City had come into operation ; and he trusted that the abolition of Smit hfield would lead to still more favourable results . Yet their anticipations of the future were pregnant with gloom . The cholera was stealing upon the metropolis in p recisely the same manner as it had done upon both its former visitations , and they had only too much reason to dread the results that would follow the approach of
summer . With respect of the question of low levels , it must not be supposed that that was the only conditi on predisposing a locality to the ravages of the epidemic . The sub-district of St . Peter ' s , Hammersmith , averaged only 4 feet above the high water level , and that of St . Olave , Southwark , was ten feet higher . Yet the cholera mortality in the former had been only eighteen in the thousand , whereas that of the latter had risen to 196 . So also within their own jurisdiction . Side by side along the river lay four of their sub-districts ; three at the elevation of 21 feet , one at the elevation of 24 feet . The cholera mortality , if simply proportioned
to levels , should have been nearly the same for these four sub-districts , and somewhat less in the last one than in the first three . But the contrary was the fact ; for in two of these sub-districts the cholera mortality for equal numbers of population was 4 ^ times as great as in the other two , where , however , to lowness of situation were added density of population and improper or deficient drainage , the cholera made its home . Their present system of tidal drainage was exceedingly prejudicial . At low water the filth was allowed to trickle over broad belts of spongy bank , exhaling poison ; and at high water it was driven back into the sewers to soak into the surrounding brickwork and ear th , and to Bend forth pestilential effluvia through every gully hole .
Persons who lived on the higher levels might care nothing for thin , but the prevalence of an infantile sickness of unusual malignity , or a doctor ' s injunction to seek a change of air , that they , too , were subject to the partial workings of that gigantic poison bed which they had contributed to maintain . Lowness of situation , overcrowding , and bad drainage , then , wore the chief conditionH which rendered a locality obnoxious by the inroads of the pestilence ; but there wore , of courne , other causes that would operate to an important extent in the same manner . Amongst those wore , of course , want of proper ventilation , and inefficient water supply , personal uncleanlineBB , an habitually defective diet , n . ml the like .
" Tile specific migrating power called cholera lias the faculty of infecting district in a manner < lelxiinent . nl to life only when their atmosphere is fraught . wiUi certain products susceptible under its inlluciice of undergoing poisonous transformation . These products , it , is true , arts nut . imperfectly known to us . Under the vague jiaine of putrefaction we include ! all those thousandfold possibilities of new combination to which organic matters are exposed in their gradual declension from life . The birth of one such combination rather than another is the postulate for a particular epidemic poison .
" Whether the ferment which induces thin particular change in certain elements of our atmosphere may ever be Home accident of local origin , or must always bo flic creeping infection from similar atmospheres elsewhere similarly effected - whether the first impulse , here or then ? , be given by this agency or by that--by heat , by magnetism , by planets , or meteors—such questions are widely irrelevant to the purpose for which I have the honour oi" addressing you . The one great pathological fuel , which I have nought to bring into prominence for your knowledge and application , in thin-that the epidemic prevalence of cholera does not arise in some new cloud of venom , floating , above
reach and control , high over successive landy , and ruining < lnw ; i upon them without dilfercnco its prepared distillation of death ; but , that , so far as scientific , analysis can decide , it depends on one occasional phase of an influence which is always about us- on one change of materials , which in their other changes give rise to oilier ills : ( . hat these materials , no perilously prone to explode into one or other breath of epidemic pestilence , are the many exhalations of animal iinclenuneiss which infect , in varying proportion , the entire area of our metropolis ; and that , from the nature of the nine , it must remain optional with tho .-ie who witness the dreadful inlliction whether they will indolently ncquioflco in their continued and . inci-caBing liabilities
to a degrading calamity , or will employ the requisite skill , science , and energy to remove from before their thresholds these filthy sources of misfortune . " The precautionary measures recommended by Mr . Simon were capable of being summed up in a single word- — -cleanliness , in the fullest . extent of the term . The state of the docks , and particularly that of Whitefriars , would become of the greatest importance ; and the condition of all the sewers should be certified to the commissioners—the grand test of successful sewerage lying in the inodorous discharge of its functions . The City was already well paved , but they should take care that the scavengers and dustmen carefully
performed their functions . Great vigilance should be exercised a s to the condition of slaughterhouses and other similar p laces ; and no d isturbance of the earth should be allowed to take place that could possibly be avoided . He deeply regretted that they could not compel a continuous supply of water , but at least there should be a daily filling of the cisternage , and Sunday should form no exception to the rule . It would surely be no heathen ' s part to urge that the Christian ' s sabbath suffered more desecration from the filth and preventible unwholesomeness of many thousand households than in the honest industry of a dozen turncocks . He was glad to learn from the engineer of the New River
Company that they expected very shortly to be able to furnish the C ity with a largely increased and practically exhaustless supply . The subject of the City pumps was an important one ; for the quality of the water depended upon the state of the gatheringgrounds of each , and they were for the most part saturated with impurities . It might , however , be to some extent improved by the use of filters composed of animal charcoal . The City had already established a system of inspection , and within the last year not fewer than 3147 visitations had been made , and 983 orders f or the abatement of nuisances had been obtained . A recent increase of the staff from four to
six would of course materially add to its efficiency ; and he calculated that the inspectors would be able to visit in each of the five more important districts from 100 to 120 houses , besides attending to their other duties . He recommended that printed notices should , during the prevalence of the epidemic , be posted in every back street , oourt , and alley , and renewed every month , advising the careful maintenance of cleanliness , and inviting complaints as to nuisances . He also suggested that circulars be sent to the clergy , the heads of visiting societies , and the like , desiring them to communicate with the officers of the commissioners on any local uncleanliness which might come to their
knowledge . Mr . Simon , after strongly advising all persons to quit the tainted districts—a course of proceeding that might have a very beneficial effect in producing reform , proceeded to give a quantity of advice as to the course to be adopted by individuals during the epidemic . He strongly advised each person , on the appearance of the premonitory symptoms , to seek the advice of their own medical attendants , in preference to relying on any published formula . His advice with respect to avoiding excess , damp and cold , over fatigue , and the like , was not dissimilar to that already given to the public ; and he at length concluded by expressing the necessity of a complete and comprehensive reform extending to the whole metropolis .
" If the possible mischief : to be wrought by epidemic cholera lay in some fixed inflexible fate , whatever opinion I might hold on the subject of its return , silence would be better than speech ; and I would gladly refrain from vexing the public ear by gloomy forebodings of an inevitable future . "But from this supposition the case differs diametrically , and the people of [ England are not ; like timid cattle , capable only when blindfold of confronting danger . It belongs to their race , it belongs to their dignity of manhood , to take deliberate cognizance of their foes , and not lightly to cede the victory . A people that has fought the greatest battles , not of arms alone , but of genius and
skilful toil , is little likely to be scared at the necessity of meeting' large dangers by the appropriate devices of science . A people that has inaugurated railways , that Una spanned the Menai Straits , and reared the Crystal I ' alaee , can hardly fear the enterprise of draining poison from iiw infected towns—a people Unit , lias freed its foreign slaves ill ; twenty millions ransom will never lot its home population perish for cheapness' sake in the ignominious ferment oi their filth ; therefore , gentlemen , advisedly , I state the danger an it seems to mo . England has again become Hubjecf to a phigue , the recurrence of which , or the duration , or the malignity , n <» human biting can predict . But if 1 state the danger , so likewise , to the bent of my belief , I state the remedy mid defence . Colossal statistics concur with circumstantial inquiry to refer this disease , in common with many
others that scourge ! our population , distinctly and infallibly lo the working of local causes susceptible of removal—of causes which devolve on our legislature to remove . The exemption we seek in worth a heavy purchase . My thoughtn turn involuntarily to the epidemics of former centuries -- —to their freqiionf returns and immense fatality . I reflect on the phiguc , and how it influenced the average doath-rato of . London ; how , in IMK ) , it doubled it ; in . KJOiJ , trnblcd it ; in 1 ( 125 , quadrupled it ; and how ( niter aless considerable visitation in KJ . 'W ) it actually multiplied the mortality sevenfold in the tremendous epidemic of ' 05 . The ravages of that pestilence are bent appreciated in the fact , that we esteem the ( heal . . Fire of London a cheap equivalent for their arrest , looking to that eventful conflagration of the metropolis with gratitude rather than horror , became of Lho mierhlior ovilj ) ( hut weru oxtinimtahod with its ij . ainon . To
so frightful a development as this , cholera by many degrees has not obtained ; but , ignorant as we are of its laws and resources , we dare not surmise , at any renewed invasion , what amount of severity it may have won . In the simple fact that our country has again become subject to pestilential epidemics , there lies an amount of threat only to be measured'by those who are conversant by history or experience with the possible . development of such disease . Therefore , gentlemen , having the deepest assurance that these unexplored possibilities of cost may he foreclosed byappropriate means , I should ill deserve your confidence if I shrank from setting before you , however ungracious the task , my deliberate estimate of the peril . It belongs to my local office to tell you of local cures , and this I have
sought to do . I have suggested that by active superintendence of all houses within your jurisdiction there may be suppressed in detail those several causes of the disease which arise in individual neglect—that by elaborate care as to the cleanliness of pavements , markets , docks , and sewers , something may be done towards the mitigation of more general causes—that by a well organized system of medical visitation very much may be effected towards encountering attacks of the disease while still amenable to treatment—that these with similar precautions are therefore to be recommended ; and not for a moment would I seem to depreciate such measures , palliative only and partial though they be . By their judicious application from Aldgate to the Temple , life may possibly be saved to
some hundreds—to children that are fondly loved , to parents that are the stay of numbers . But against the full significance of any epidemic , I am bold to tell you that these are but poor substitutes for protection . To render them effectual , even in their narrow sphere of operation , there must be great vigilance and great expenditure ^—a weary vigilance , a disproportionate expenditure , because chiefly given , to defeat in detail what should have been prevented on principle , and be done what may in this palliative spirit , the sources of the disease are substantially unstayed , for the faults to which its metropolitan prevalence is due consist not simply in a number of individual mismanagements , but include a common and radical mal-construction as their chief . No
city , so far as science may be trusted , can deserve immunity from epidemic disease , except by making absolute cleanliness the first law of its existence—such cleanliness , I mean , as consists in the perfect adaptation of drainage , water supply , scavenage , and ventilation , to the purposes they should respectively fulfil—such cleanliness as consists in carrying away by these means , inoffensively , all refuse materials of life—gaseous , solid , or fluid—from the person , the house , the factory , or the thoroughfare , as soon as possible after their formation , and with as near an approach as their several natures allow , to one continuous current of removal . To realize for London this conception of how a
city should cleanse itself may involve , no doubt , the perfection of numberless details ; yet , most of all , it would presuppose a comprehensive organization of plan and method , not alone for that intramural unity of system which is needful for all the works—not least , for those of drainage and water supply—but equally to harmonize those works with other extramural arrangements for utilizing to the country tho boundless wealth of metropolitan refuse—for distributing to the uses of agriculture what is then rescued from the character of filth—for requiting to the fields , m gifts for vegetation , what they have rendered to the town , in food for mun . How far the construction of London
has proceeded in the recognition of such objects , or howfar the advantages of such a plan have been realized , it could only be a mockery to ask . Our metropolis , by successive acerotions , has covered mile after milo of land ; each now edition has been made with scarcely more reterenco to tho legitimate necessities of life than if it had clustered there by crystallization ; with no scientific forecast to plan tho whole , with little l > ut chance mid cheapness to shape the parts , our desultory architecture ) has eclipsed tho conditions of health . Draining upniU or downhill , us ( he case might be , ami running their aqueducts at random from chalk quarries or nvor mud , or ponding sewage in their cellars , and digging beside it water- blocking up the inlets of freshness and equally the to struggle witii
outlets of riuifiarice—constructing sewers the Thames , now to pollute its ebb , now to be obstructed by its flow-the builders of muny generations have accumulated sanitary errors in so intricate a system that 1 neir apprehension and their cure ; seem equally remote , lliercfore , by reason of causes ramified through tho whole- metropolis , and deep-rooted in its soil , which bind nllFU together in one common endurance of their elleets -theiefore cannot epidemic disease be thoroughly coin pierce i oy any exertion or by any amelioration short of tho compi < u > ami comprehensive <•»«! . Against the danger we dread no shelter in to he found in pefly reforms and pufehwo lc legislation . Not to inspectorships of nuisances , Out w u '" largo mind of state policy , one must look for a real « ' »»"" - ixil . ion ( Vmn tins ehastoninfr plntrue . A clnlclH intenu , i
can appreciate the wild absurdity of seeking at . 1 eru w u , bore ruiiM to waste beneath our pavomeiit-ol "I "' . ! " J | only epidemic disease with what might augment the om of '( . he people of waiting , like our ancestors , to expmio tho neglected divinity of water in some better 1 >< W . ™ by lire . But it needs the granp of pol . ticn 1 nwist , ship , not uninformed by science , to convert to practical ap I ta ( ion these obvious elements of Imovvledgo-to w' <;» M"f ";__ great national object , irrelevant to tluvinterests <> J »"* £ to lift an universal requirement from the sphere oi V » * Hionnl jealousies , and to found on immutable principle ui sanitary legislation of a people . "
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JOURNAL OF HALLWAY ACCIDENTS . tf «/ W « y .- Accident from iumerfect Holf-aeting X ™ " ™ * flu , l ' atricroft , station , on the London and Nor ! li W ™ torn Uailway . A train left Manchester . surly m the n <> rn i j . At I ' atricroft flu , driver found Unit the . jnnnUi . 1 . d not a ^ an , ! that he war , going into tho Clifton jund ¦ ll > « ht . novel towards the up line in order that the po » t » n ^ J bo adjusted . At tho moment tho tnun wu . amm do »
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H 62 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 3, 1853, page 1162, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2015/page/10/
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