The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-31 00:00:00

THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE CUT

OP LONDON.

Mors the Daily News.)
The officer of health of the City of London has
just sent in his second &nasal report to the Honour-
able the Commission of Sewers of the City of London.
Even if unable to report the good dons under his
direction, and appeal to the direct advantage of his
appointment to the health of the City, still nothing
Is more calculated to command attention to sanitary
evils than those eloquent productions of the City
siker of health. Although his forcible pictures of
Amass and its attendant evils, and clear enunciation
elf the means of its removal, are addressed to City
SOlMllliosionero, and illustrated by City facts, than is not
as extmerban vestry in the metropolis, or &corpora-
tism is the kingdom, that might not consult this docu-
ment wit h advantage. The evils still exist ing in the City
of London exist also in Whitethapel, in Spitalfielde, in
St.Pancras,in Marylebone, and in Westminster. There
is, however, a difference, and it is in this : that, whilst in
the City they have employed • medical officer, through
whose suggestions many improvements have been I
made and many lives sired, in the other parishes no
inch officer has been appointed, and they remain with
the causes of disease almost as rife as they were before
the last pestilence alarmed the government and the
parochial boards into the protases of a removal of the
ceases of disease.
One of the first fasts refereed to by Mr. BISON is
the mortality of the City of Loudon from the 30th of
September, 1849, to the 28th of September, 1850. It
appears that 2,752 persons died in that period in a
population of 125.500, being about twenty-two deaths
, for every thousand living peewee. This is • ratifying
1 decrease upon the mortality of the year previous, the
Autism year, when the number of deaths were
thirty in every thousand. How great a decrease
Nis is on years before 1849, Mr. Smote is sot able to
im, but he inclines to think that it is considerably
Wow the average. We have often pointed out how
daageroas it is to infer from a few years' damsa of
mortality that the tendency to disease is diminishing.
Is this cam, as in so many others where coincidence
is likely to occur, we must look for a militant cause
ter the diminished mortality, is order to infer that it
is permanent. Thus we believe that in many dis-
Iris% the decrease of death has arisen from the
abiders having carried off the weak and aged, and
Qom otherwise predisposed to disease, who, had they
lived, would have swelled the bills of mortality
this year.
Aa opinion that often paralyses all exertion in
knee of sanitary retinas is well met by Mr. Sinoo
in this report. It is very common for people to think
that shortness of life and liability to excessive morta-
lity is what a man most pay for the advantages et '
living in a civilised community with all the privileges
of a town life. He quotes • district in Northumber- I
land as the healthiest in the kingdom, where
esly thirteen persons die in the thousand. This is
inesifestly attributable to the absence of the come
at Armes, bat to *hew that this mortality is not the
envied position alone of a rural district far removed,
hem the elegem to which the inhabitants of • tows
lib ore sqesed, he points out that actually in the'
retires of the ni.rth west sub-district of the City of
London union the deaths for the last year amounted
to only thirteen in the thousand. It appears from
this report as well ea those of the Beaistrar from
week to week, that by far the greater amount of death
is from preventible diseases—from diseases some of
which, such as typhus, never moor at all in healthy
districts; and others, such as measles and scarlatina,
which are seldom or ever fatal, where proper precau-
tioas have been taken to secure health.- The disease
which of all others seems to be most under human
control has during even the put healthy year had a
double mortality in the City of London. This is small-
pox. We have boon severely reprehended for re-
meameadieg sompuleary vaccination. Are not people 1
to be allowed to die as they please ? Certainly not.
A men taken is the fact of committing suicide is coo- I
veyed to the police station, and punished for hie
wickedness. We think this is just to the man and
the community, and surely the same principle will
apply to persons who wilfully subject themselves and 1
their ottspring to so fatal a malady as small-pox. Bat
if the government is not to interfere, surely this is a
subject for philanthropic societies or individuals to
take up.
In his statistical accounts of the number who have
died in each parish Mr. SIMON states that he is unable
to give the exact population of these parishes, so that
his figures are really of no use. This is a deficiency
which surely could be easily supplied. When
the deaths from cholera are stated to be fifty in
• given district, it is very evident that the num-
ber Is of no value as it stands only as an indica-
tion of the existence of the disease in • particular
quarter. Mr. SIMON has, however, pointed out a
vary important fact with regard to cholera, as the m-
asked the examination of the districts in which this
dhow was most fatal. He shows that in every case
it was connected with a " peculiar condition of soil,
of which dampness is one sore and invariable charac-
ter, and organic decomposition (promoted by damp-
ness) probably another." In the districts which for-
merly formed the banks of the river Fleet, and whisk
were composed of much such mud banks as those of
the Thames in London at the present day, there sow I
stands a mass of homes, in most of whh cholera mew
most rife. The same is true of another district, be- '
tween Aldersgate and Bishopsgate, which STOW de-
scribes in his time as consisting of " • moorish rotten
ground, impassable but for cawswaies purposely made
to that intent," and known by the name of Moorfields.
Such seems to be the soil most favourable for the do-
'
I velopment of cholera. Dr. Kura, one of the local
superintendents of the Board of Health, after • strict
investigation sod large experience of the disease, has
come to the same conclusion, that soil has, more than
say other local circumstance, an Memos on the
IFseof cholera.
vtg dwelt upon the mortality of London, the
molar proceeds to consider the owes and the pre-
med
and s' of endemicalludes
disease
to the present im-
. Under the bead of
Fthe
essetruction of sewers, and addresses himself
(seedon of the use of disinfeetieg or deo-
dorisimgegeate. He here very properly warns persons
itkeiog misled by the use of the term die-
_____The various substances thus called have
set, that we at present know, any power to destroy the
germ of disease, and seeing that the use of such
agents as deodorisers may frequently lead to the re-
teeth= rather than to the getting rid of injurious
mitten, he very properly condemns their employment.
We must leave his remarks on the supply of water
ter another mead" let we cannot refrain from
drawing Oblides to hie remarks on 0 the habitations
and social remdlties oldie peer." Surely him portrai-
ture of the Wren to be found in the courts and
asps al the City diaries will find a response in the
Mom dummy of SW rich merchants in the City, and
if they salmi vines the wretched inhabitants of
them gem mhos, they are herded together in a
sassmrthat besets meld not be compelled to do, from
their poverty and degradation, they may, at leut, pro-
vost, by sanitary supervision and increased accommo-
dation, thlt overcrowding which, whilst it destroys the
lives of those who are exposed to it, causes them to
Issues the centre arid foci of pestilence to others.
limy friend to the wretched and degraded part of
our peplation will thank Mr. &moo for his eloquent
sad powsphl delineation of the evils connected with
the overcrowding of particular spots in our large
lollies. Of all places in the world this Is the greatest
reproach to the City of London, as in their great
wealth and extrsordinary powers they have the
means at their disposil of removing the assess al this
gigantic eviL

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