The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-22 00:00:00

When any matter of social interest becomes the
theme of public discugsion, we are not long before
we hear the sentiments of the well-known corres-
pondent of our contemporary who signs himself
S. G. 0. Just now the conditions most favourable
or unfavourable to public health are prominent
topics of the day, and accordingly S. G. 0. gives
us his views of the matter in an epistle reflecting
on the respective requirements of cattle and
Christians. The amount of care and attention
bestowed upon the sick cattle appears very un-
warrantably to have excited the indignation of the
writer. Is a cow, he asks, of more value than a
Christian, forgetting rather illogically that it is
only as supplying the wants of man that the cows
get any attention, and that were it not for the effect
upon beef and milk they might die unheeded and
uncared for. The extent of our humanity towards
cur cattle has been pretty accurately measured by
the degree in which their comfort or wellbeing con-
cerns ourselves, and the imported cattle might have
continued to be subjected to all the old hardships
of hunger, thirst, neglect, and exposure, closely pent
in stifling holds, or in dirty railway trucks, if
we had not suddenly been made to suffer pretty
severely in our pockets for our oblivion of com-
mon humanity. But S. G. 0. has some grounds
for indignation, for the truth is that we treat

our poor very much as we used to treat our
cattle. We suffer them to herd together under
the most unfavourable conditions, deprived
not only of those comforts which it needs
money to procure, but of those common necessaries
of healthy life which should be within the easy
reach of every man, woman, and child amongst us.
Unless our attention is specially called by the out-
break of a pestilence or the visitation of an epidemic,
we are not likely to give much heed to the con-
stantly repeated story. Typhus in all its forms has
grown too common to command a moment's thought,
and our registrars and dispensary doctors preach
to us in vain. The very means which the upper and
middle classes take to improve their own health,
and to put into practice some of those theories
about fresh air and ample space which our scientific
men are always upholding, tell indirectly against
the poor. The great increase of the railway lines,
partially consequent upon the demand for suburban
houses and the increased suburban traffic, has
packed the already overcrowded poor into still
smaller space ; it has summoned workmen and.their
families to live in those parts where the houses are
being the most rapidly demolished ; and, while
villas, and terraces, and squares have sprung up in
endless repetition, few if any houses for the labour-
ing classes have been erected about the metropolis.
Yet, after all, the question is not an easy one to deal
with. Certainly we cannot let all improvements and
alterations stand still because they will entail thede-
molition of the dwellings of the poor, neither can we
by any legislative enactment insure clean, whole-
some habitations, and all the requisites of health,
to the masses. " Let the public now say," demands
the writer referred to, " whether or no tens of thou-
sands of Christians are not for ever living and
.dying among us, we knowing well that they have
not these common elements of health which we are
bound to give our cattle." To this appeal there can
be but one answer given, but to the further question,
" What is being done for the crowded, ill-fed, air-
poisoned poor of our towns and villages ?" it is
more difficult to reply. It is very evident that no
Place within our jurisdiction should be deficient in
drainage, means of ventilation, and supply of water;
but when we have secured all this, and even pro-
vided against excessive crowding of the houses, how
are we to guard against the poor food, dirty habits
of the people, and against the dense city air which
mustt
i.
A
enters their rooms when they open their windows ?
The di ai cul tilsoiailrye
pgartrent,cesodogesrenautt
mtheaatu
iwze
has
vreePgds theaartieace dirty habits of the people, that is an
evil only to be cured by time and instruction. It
is useless to hope that landlords will as a rule
trouble themselves about the matter, but something
might be clone by refusing to let rooms to really
wilfully dirty families, but more is to be expected
from the gradual spread of education and
the consequent refining influence, as well as from
the encouragement afforded by a proper supply of
air and water. The latter should be plentifully and
constantly supplied to every house in the metropolis,
if we want to keep off fever and epidemic. The
drainage and cleansing of drains, dustbins, and every
etUr accur:deatioa of putrid o: rcflIEG ratter, shc,-.11(1
_Dv /00449114 y juligted o by every distr3Ct juspeq.