The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-06 00:00:00

DR. RUMSEY'S ADDRESS ON HEALTH.

The address of the President of the Health Department
was delivered in the Friends' Meeting House at ten
o'clock. Dr. Rumsey confined his observations principally
to matters of public health. Taking up as the first subject
the vitiation of air caused by town life, he observed that
there were three natural remedies of different values in
different cases, viz.: motion of air, diffusion of gases by '
natural law, and the presence or introduction of active •
origin. The last, if possible in dense populations, would
be the real remedy. Practically, the most important mea-
sure of sanitary legislation and administration
would be to purify, as far as could be done,
the air of towns, and to provide better air than
towns supply to the people, and to accomplish
these objects by three methods : I. Speedily removing all
the darts of animal life and everything which by decom-
position can corrupt the air ; 2. Promoting the free circu-
lation of air in every quarter, through every court and
alley, into every house, every room in the inhabited area;
and 3. Enabling every person to breathe a sufficient
quantity of pure and good air, i.e., air having the pro-
perties of ozone. The present sanitary laws, if they were
properly carried into effect, could secure the first object.
The second was a very vexed question—what ventilation
really was and how it could best be obtained being a
matter open to much difference of opinion. The third
object was one to secure which little had been attempted,
either by the Legislature or by private enterprise. The
Artisans and Labourers' Dwellings Act of last session was
very unlikely to provide a cure for the evils of overcrowd-
ing. Some measures, it was suggested, ought to be taken
by the State for the distribution of the labouring
classes over wider areas of habitation. Passing to
the consideration of the water supply of towns,
Dr. Rumsey remarked on the serious diminution in the
natural supply of water going on in most parts of the
country. The real redress for this growing evil was to
preserve with more sedulous care the great natural
reservoirs of the water supply, the elevated sponges of
those mountain and hill ranges which are the marks of
watershed and points of attraction for atmospheric
moisture. The causes of the diminution in the flow of
streams having been pointed out, the question was asked
whether, the sources of water thus decreasing, greater care
was taken of that which nature still beneficently provided.
The question must be answered negatively. Within the
last thirty years almost all the watercourses of the land
had been incorrigibly defiled, and even converted into
distributors of disease by measures of town sewerage
contrived hastily and executed unscientifically. Excepting
certain first-class towns in the North, it was indisputable
that the condition of drinking-water in most parts of
England was deteriorating. Village supplies were gene-
rally scanty and bad. Besides injury to health caused
by pouring sewer water into rivers, the means of augment-
and cheapening the food supply of a teeming and needy
population bad been wantonly wasted. The distribution
of sewer water over the land by irrigation within
safe and accessible distances from large towns was
mentioned as an only cure for the evil. Reference was
then made to the practical question of administrative
machinery. It was to be hoped that in any reconstruction
of existing machinery as the result of the royal commission
about to issue, the future central department would include
all those distinguished men who had for years rendered
invaluable services to the public under the present frag-
mentary and inharmonious system. The character and
functions of sewer authorities, as now established, having
been made the subject of comment, the address concluded
thus : " Might it not be advisable for local bodies, in
small districts especially, to seek, and for the Legislature
to grant, an improved constitution of the administrative
machinery adapted to the necessities of the public health ?
Very desirable does it appear that town and country and
union authorities should be enabled to unite in the
execution of certain extensive measures, and especially
in the appointment of skilled officers. A rational
reform of local divisions, and a wise extension of
administrative area, are quite compatible with
respectful consideration for the ancient limits of
' parishes, towns, and counties. By judicious improve-
ments and reinforcements of country authority especially,
a very noble and excellent characteristic of English
society may be preserved in the advance of civilisation.
If I have not dwelt with all the enthusiasm of a reformer
on the progress and attainments of the last quarter of a
century, it is not, I hope, that I undervalue the great results,
but that I consider certain defects and sources of failure

to be matters more deserving our immediate attention. It is
well, moreover, to speak with modesty and caution on
what has hitherto been accomplished. Before I sit down
I venture to protest against the inconsiderate use—l might
almost say the audacious misuse—of local rates of mor-
tality in support of some favourite sanitary statistics, or
who do not perceive how small may be the bearing
of any particular act or neglect upon the
variations of a general death-rate, or, again, who
forget that the same figures in different places and popu-
lations, differing as to age, class, and occupation, may
represent totally different standards of health, vigour, and
longevity." A vote of thanks was passed to Dr. Itumsey
for his address, which was of a must voluminous and
exhaustive character.