The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-18 00:00:00

the most startling and astounding, and when matters of
vital import, of the most profound interest, are disre-
garded or treated with negligence and indifference. Such
a crisis may arrive with regard to public health in this
country. Whilst the cries of enslaved negroes, the de-
mands of distant colonies for succour and assistance, are
listened to and relieved by the noble but
scmetimes misdirected efforts of British philan-
thropy, the infinitely greater claims, the by far
more urgent call of thousands of our fellow-countrymen
whose physical energies are impaired by the slow and
in4lious operation of causes, the effects of which they
can neither avoid nor control, are unfortunately passed
over with indifference, or heard without commiseration.
The experience of the wisest men, of all ages, has gone
tar to prove that the mental and inor4l qualities of a
people materially depend on their physical organization
—that causes, injuriously affecting the latter, must
surely and inevitably blunt the susceptibilities and im-
pair the energies of the former—and since the physical
being can be modified and altered by varying the exter-
nal influences acting on our population, the importance,
nay, imperative necessity, of due sanitary regulations
for the conservation of the public health must be a
p.trarnount and primary consideration in the projection
of any scheme of social improvernent.—(llear, hear.)
He was reading yesterday an article in the Times
newspaper which struck him very forcibly, and,
with the permission of the meeting, he would call its at-
tention to it. The article had reference to the rsturns
made by the Registrar- General of the Marriages, Births,
and Deaths of the nation :

" The cholera," said the writer, " as we have said,
lid not produce effects enough to overbalance the results
of sanitary improvements combined with a toler ably
healthy season. There died of this disease in London,
during the last quarter of the past year, 516 persons of
all ages, being full 500 above the average from that
complaint. On the other hand, the deaths from typhus,
though 700 in number, were 223 less than in the winter
previous; but these figures in themselves are enough to
show how far more serious than our occasional epi-
demics are those maladies which are always with us, un-
seen and almost unnoticed. The disorder registered as
bronchitis' must either have enormously increased of
late years, or it must be made to comprehend a variety
of diseases formerly known by more vulgar names, fur
its doings within the limits of the metropolis in the
single winter of 1348 alone are represented by the item
of 1,271, being second only to consumption. In fact,
consumption, bronchitis, and pneumonia together, are the
causes of one-fourth of all the deaths in the kingdom."
Now, what did those facts prove? In his opinion they
were the basis on which would be built a series of most
invaluable facts. They showed too clearly that con-
sumption, bronchitis, or affections of the bronchial
tubes, and pneumonia or inflammation of the lungs, were
the causes of one-fourth of all the deaths in the kingdom.
—(llear, hear.) Well, that was not at all extraordinary
to him ; it might appear very strange—exceedingly
strange to them ; but if they knew what he knew--and
really they might be just as much acquainted with the
matter as himself—if they knew that they must take
air into their lungs 28,000 times in every twenty-four
hours—that the heart bating, say seventy five times a
minute, each tune propelling about two ounces of blood—
that this blood supplied the air-tubes, the lungs, the blood-
vessels, and absorbents—if they knew those things,
could they at all wonder that consumption attacked so
many people of this country ?—(Hear.) He thought
not ; the wonder to him was that deaths from
consumption were not more numerous.—(Hear, hear.)
lie would also read a most important statement in re-
ference to this qaestion from the writings of a w;11-
known and most talented physician, Sydenham, who
practised in London during the time of the great plague
of London in 1665. Talking of the pestilential fever
and plague of the years 1665 and 1666, he said:—
" Hever, however, of the true malignant character, is
anything but an every• day disease; and from those other
forms of fever which are called malignant, only on the
strength of the severity of their symptoms, it differs
both in kind and character. Its true affinities are with
plague, nor more nor less; and from the true plague
it is distinguished only by its difference in degree."
Then he went on to say—speaking of the constitution
and peculiar condition of the atmosphere to which he
(Mr. Walker) would earnestly request their close atten-
tion, he continued:—
" Over and above, however, this constitution of the
atmosphere and these general influences, there must be
an additional determination in the form of a susception
of the miasma. This means the admission of the mor-
bid principle from some pestiferous body, either imme-
diately and by close contact, or mediately from the
transmission of a fumes. When these conditions coin-
cide with the disposition of the atmosphere which we
de.Lcribed, a small spark gives origin to a fearful confla-
gration. Death presses upon death; and partly from the
exhalations of those who have sickened, and partly from
the corpses of those who have died, disease and contagion
are propagated through the whole atmosphere of the
affected area. And now both the existence of the
fomites and the presence of the stricken have ceased to
be the conditions of its propagation. The simple atmos-
phere drawn in as we breathe is in itself and of itself
sufficient to destroy; and it destroys even those who
have been removed with all care from the affected, pro-
vided only that their bodies be impregnated with the
humours adapted to the receipt of the influence."
With the permission of the meeting he would give an-
other line or two, and then conclude as quickly as pos-
sible. They would perceive from the remarks of
the celebrated Sydenham, the author whom he had
just quoted, that to bring about a constitution of the
atmosphere favourable to propagation of that disease,
they must have peculiar conditions of weather. Now
he would read an extract from a very old work, which
perhaps many would hear for the first time. It referred
to the time of the plague, when a hundred thousand
people died in the then comparatively thin population of
London. 12,000 persons fperished in one week in the
month of September, upwards of 4,000 souls being sent
prematurely to their last account during one night alone.
The writer said—

" During the time of the plague there was such a
general calm and serenity as if the wind and rain also
had banished the realm, for for many weeks together I
could net observe the least breath of wind, not enough
to stir a weathercock or a fane; if any, it was southerly;
the fires with great difficulty were made to burn, I sup-
pose through the great scarcity of nitre in the air.
There fell abundance of mildews, and the very birds
would pant for breath, especially crows, kites, &c.; and
I observed them to fall more heavily than at other times."
He (Mr. Walker) considered that a most important
matter. They had no business to talk of Providential
visitations, though he bowed to the decrees of the
Almighty as reverently as any man, when they knew
that the remedy was in their own hands. Nei-
ther had the clergy, who permitted or sanctioned,
or attempted to continue this practice, any right
to repeat as they did Sunday after Sunday, to that God
whose very providence they were abusing, the prayer
"From plague, pestilence, and famine, good Lord de-
liver us."—(Cheers.) He knew there were many good
men among them, but he trusted they would soon
find out that he was right and that they were wrong.
lie thought the time was not far distant when they
might calculate upon such assistance in the House of
Commons as would enable them to carry the measure
which they sought to obtain.—(Cheers.) One word
more—he would warn men to be careful how, they cor-
rupted the earth, for so surely as the surface of the
earth was corrupted, so surely would the atmosphere
be corrupted they breathed, and so surely as
that atmosphere was corrupted every organ
and all the tissues of their body must be
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quality or another ; and
the resolution which he was about to propose was to
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pray that the House of Commons, would, as soon as
possible, give the working and labouring population,
the sinews of the nation—that it would give them
at least, if it gave them nothing more, exemption from
those pestilential causes of disease.—(Cheers.) Mr.
Walker concluded by proposing the following resolution:
"It having been repeatedly demonstrated that the
practice of burying the dead in the midst of the living
produces the most deplorable consequences to the health
of the community, by poisoning the air we breathe and
the water we drink, this meeting deeply regrets that a
question, involving the disposal of some 600,000 bodies,
the annual mortality of the United Kingdom, should not
have taken precedence of all others in the sanitary mea-
sures passed in the last session of Parliament. That
more especially at the present time, when cholera is
among us, the constant disturbance of dead bodies, in
every stage of decomposition, and the exposure of human
remains in consequence of the incessant upturning of the
soil, for the purpose of making graves in places long
since filled to repletion, ought to be instantly abolished.
That this meeting also protests most strongly, on the
ground of the utter worthlessness o the protection
thereby afforded to the public healthf , and for other
cogent reasons, against the practice of depositing bodies
in vaults, or other receptacles,. under
cochurches
and orth er cha-
-
fore it records its unqualified condemnation of clause
pels, whether in leaden or pitched' ffins; e
112 of the City sanitary measure, which, in the year
1848, legalised this most objectionable and destructive
custom."
The CIIAMMAN apologised for the absence of Mr.
Mackinnon, and Mr. Wyld, M.P., from the meet-
ing. Both Honourable Gentlemen were detained by
particular engagements, but their attachment to the cause
none could question fora moment. They had assured
him that if at all practicable they would attend some
time in the course of the evening before the proceedings
terminated.

Mr. LURE JAMES HANSARD, in seconding the resolu-
tion, said he thought Mr. Walker had clearly proved
that intramural burials were not only merely a nuisance,
but a great injury to the health, well-being, and morality
of the people of this metropolis. He was entitled to
great credit for persevering in keeping that great sub•
ject constantly before the attention of the public, and
he hoped he would continue to do so until be succeeded
at last in forcing it upon the attention of the Legislature
and the Government.—(Hear, hear.) The Chairman
had also said sufficient to satisfy any ordinary mind of
the evil effects of the present system, and if he
had been a general of some great army, going
about from country to country and slaughtering
his fellow-creatures, he could not have applied his pow-
der, his ammunition, and his shot with greater effect
than he had done that evening his oratorical weapons
and missiles upon behalf of a peaceful agitation.—
(Cheers.) They had to consider how far tho subject
had reference to the feelings of the living, and how far
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London, he could not pretend to anything like his zeal
and perseverance in the cause, but he could confirm the
testimony which asdio theA
he had given. In the New Bunhill-
fields burial. ground he saw as many as twelve or fift“en
graves open • they were all walled up with coffins;
some were three or four feet deep, for infants, others
about eight or ten feet, and most of them were within
g pi the burfaCe.—(Etc§r, hear.) go w 45 Also