The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-11 00:00:00

and injudicious treatment of hired nursery keepers
had operated favourably upon their health; and
apart from special epidemics the ordinary maladies
of childhood were very slightly felt. In Preston,
through the summer and autumn diarrhoea was
much more prevalent than in ordinary years, and
the disease was peculiarly untractable. In no other
town was there such an excess, and in Ashton,
Blackburn, Bolton, Bury, and Stockport there
was tees autumnal diarrt eel. than usual. Ce.aes
of dysentery, in no great number, but still
of exceptional frequency, occurred at Cliorley,
Oldham, Salford, and Wigan. At Ashton
and Chorley diarrbcel had been a constant con-
comitant of measles, but except in those towns no
prevalent disease had been complicated by it. A
tendency to Lm morrhage was witnessed in several
towns, and actual scurvy occurred among cotton
workers at Stockport, Preston, Blackburn, and Sal-
ford. In almost all cases the sufferers were women.
A disposition to ulcerate or slough, apparently in
consequence of altered habits and diet, was exhibited
in ono er two cases in Blackburn ; and one district
surgeon in Manchester found that all bruises and
alight wounds were singularly difficult to heal.
Rheumatism was said to be particularly common
among other places at Ashton and "Wigan. An un-
paralleled quantity of itch was obanrved in Black-
burn, Manchester, Stockport, anti Salford. Epi-
demic diseases, fostered as they are by bad diet, bad
air, and want of cleanliness, furnish a good index
to an exceptional prevalence of these agencies. Put-
ting aside sporadic cases the following complaints
were met with in an epidemic form :—chickenpox
in a part of Manchester; measles in Ashton, B leck-
burn, Bury, Chorley, Manchester, and to a less extent
in Salford, Preston, and Wigan; whooping-cough in
Charley, Manchester, Salford, and Stockport; scar-
latina in Ashton, Darwen, Manchester, Oldham,
And about_ October and-November in "Stockport;
ttphoid rather frequent in Bolton, Bury, Chorley,
Darwen, and Stockport ; true typhus cases were

seen in Preston, Manchester, and Chorley. At
Caorley measles had frequently been complicated
with ophthalmia. Scarlatina, whever it occurred,
VP4B distinguished by the extreme degiec to which it
affected the mucous membranes. Very bad throats,
with nasal discharges, and glands in the neck greatly
swonen, had been commonly observed, and in some
places, as at Oldham, had given a highly fatal cha-
racter to the epidemic. In that town, the popula-
tion of which is 72,233, there were 169 deaths from
scarlatina between midsummer and th© Ist of
December. Drunkenness with the diseases and
accidents produced by it were unequivocally
less
prevalent than usual. Only in Manchester, Sai ford,
and Wigan, where a large portion of the inha-
bitants are not engaged in the cotton trade, had in-
temperance prevailed to its ordinary extent.
The inquiry of Dr. Buchanan was, as we have
hinted, not confined to the diseases which had been
produced or aggravated by distress, but extended to
the more general sukject of the income, expendi-
ture, and the state and habits of the operatives.
As the result of the investigations into the financial
branch of the subject it was found that low health
and actual disease had resulted and would result
from the income of the unemployed being below the
standard that would procure them adequate food.
Actual observation showed that health cannot be
4uPported on an amount of food less than is repro-
leuted by is. 6d. per head per week wholesale, or
s• 91d. retail value. In the month of December
,
oat
all E`ue average income of the cotton workers from
°llrees was nearly 28per headperweek, but
as t •
about that payments for rent, amounting to
and
sor4l
..eer week per family, for candles, and
tity or l',,,toltliaeifor soap, had to be made, the quan-
such as cool Proeurable was on the average only
ls. hot obtained at contract prices for
From the con, at retail shops would cost Is. 70.
vember scarcely
more
of the distress until No-
: than three quarters of that
amount of food Nee,
which entturable. There is one small
outgoing
indicates the clinging i:°htt? be overlooked, as it
ht:vtat? the severest distress.
part of those who are tuff:.°lte of prudence on the
e their child): en in burial
Many of the operative%
clubs, and religiously discher
weekly payments. of a pen, Rek the ordinary
snid best pleasedy °l2'ed. The poor
are, it ' ...
oPnt their
in money or in tickets th ".4 assistance
e "._ either
which is not confined to. a partienlar ietc:L'eney of
choice in this respect . ne.
is hardly n
between the prices "vs- -rem
a comparison
au .
those paid articles s
tail shops and id for uppliered
that 10c1. given in kind
by contract it appears
is equal to a shilling given in money. Nor is the
kind
confined
advantage of the system of relief in
to the question of value.
supplied from
The artre.es
the stores of ~uardiars and reltef committees are, as
a rule, better and more pure than
those obtainable
at the shops; and under such a eYs'
-ein the poor
escape the temptation to unprofitable
Expenditure
to which when relief is given in money they are too
often disposed to yield.
The nature of the diet of the operatives and its
preparation have, of course, a bearing upon their
nutrition scarcely lees important than its amount.
In. these respects the poor of Lancashire suffer not
a little in consequence of their previous habits and
their want of knowledge as to how to make the
most of the food which is now procurable. They have :
been used to live upon a genrjo-as diet, and scffer
more from the lack of animal food than if they had i
not beeu accustomed to its liberal use. In prosper- 1