The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-28 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY.

(From the Journal)
This society held its first monthly meeting for the present
year on Thursday, the 9th inst., at the Medical Hall, Mount-
pleasant, Henry Booth, Esq., president, in the chair.
We should much oftener report the proceedings of this very
useful society, were it not that its nights of meeting are. so
close on our day of publication. The Subject- brought for-
ward at its present meeting is one we would not willingly
lose sight of, it being of extreme importance, 'especially so to
the inhabitants of Liverpool ; And we hope the council of the
society will not stop.here,.but found-sonic practical measure
on the facts laid before them, and bring it under the cogni-
zance of our municipal authorities.
The paper read on the evening was by J. Cunningham,
F.G.S., architect. it arose out of facts brought forward by
•
the registrar-general, in his anntial report of the united king-
dom, frorn. which it -appears' that' Liverpool stands lower in
the;seale of human life than any other town in England. In
the paper from which we- extract, Mr. Cunningham points
out the causes of this alarming fact, and then suggests the
remedy, and in both instances, we think, successfully. After
some preliminary remarks, -Mr. Cunningham says--
" In the first annual report published by the registrar-
general, Liverpool appears to be the most unhealthy town in
the kingdom. • Many of the causes which, in my opinion,
operate powerfully in producing this unhealthy condition I
shall endeavour briefly to point out, and offer a few sugges-
tions as to the measures that should be adopted to modify
their influence, if not entirely to remove them.

" But before going into detail, I beg to read to you a few
extracts from Dr. Farr's report to the registrar-general,
wherein is shown the great mortality of this town, as com-
pared with others. It must, however, be borne in mind,
that the following returns were made during six months of
the ye'ar 1837, viz., from the Ist July to the 31st December,
when this town, I am given to understand by my' friend -Dr.
Duncan, was more unhealthy than at any other subsequent
period. Still the comparative mortality is so great, that there
can be little doubt of its being a yen, unhealt- place.
• h

" Dr.' Farr has taken female life -as the standard of com-
putation in his tables.
" Among 100,000 females living, the annual deaths are—
FROM FIPIDENircA.
369 London .
418 Liverpool
56 All England
Sr MOTION.
London
Liverpool
CAUSUS.
London
Liverpool
All England

Leeds,

Birmingham
Manchester ,

Leeds.

FROM CO2:
.. 401
.. . . 494
.. . . 510
CROM AL)
.... 1804
. . . . 2101
.. . 2378

Birrning,hani
Manchester

Leeds
Maneho,tcr

697
1116
415

402
670
415

. . . 2520
. . . 3289
.. . 1972

- .
" From the above, it will be seen that Liverpool exceeds
even London nearly double the number of deaths from epi-
demics," and a half more from consumption and all causes.
Manchester stands next in the list of destructives, and, I be-
lieve, owing. to similar causes.
But we ask,-why should Liverpool be so destructive to hu-
man life, for no town can be by nature more favourably
situated as regards every thing.conducive to health ? First of
all, we have a dry sandy soil, with equally dry substrata-of
rock, admirably 'disposed for sewering and draining. Se-
condly, a river sufficiently capacious and powerful to carry
off twice a day into the ocean ten thousand times more soil
than can he produced by the present number of inhabitants.
And thirdly, we have the pure air, for nearly nine months of
the year, wafted to us across the broad Atlantic and over the
healthful mountains and valleys of Wales, The answer,
therefore, must be, that man himself is the principal agent
in this work of destruction. Guided mainly, as he is in most
cases, by cupidity, he goes on ignorant and regardless of the
laws of nature. in the construction of places of habitation for
himself and fellow-creatures ; and no place with which I am
acquainted affords so striking an example of this blind and
sinful mode of proceeding as Liverpool. The consequences.
as might be expected, are fearfully exemplified in'the whole-
sale destruction exhibited in those tables.

" It appears by Dr. Farr's researches, that the fatality of
every class of diseases is augmented nearly double in a con-
centrated population, to what it is in a rural population. He
compares the deaths in twenty-four large towns, namely :
Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, &e.,
containing 1,712,000 inhabitants, with rural districts, contain-
ing an equal population, in Essex, Gloucester, Hereford,
Sntfolk, &c., always distinguishing males from females. The
following will be sufficient to show :
" DEATHS: IN SIN MONTHS ISY TWELVE CLASSES OF
FATAL DISEASES.
In London and 2.1 In rural dis-
other towns, con- tricts, contain-
taining a popula. ing apopulation
lion of 3,553.000. of .3,500,000
Epidemic, endemic, and:conta-
giois diseases . .
'Sporadic Diseases.
Of the nervous system....
respiratory organs .
• organs of circulation
„ digestive organs... .
„ urinary organs
„ organs of generation.
„ organs of locomotion
„ integumentary system .
Of uncertain seat
Age.

4

12,776

7,705
12,019

6,045

8,607
7,847

Violent deaths

Not spec:Died

590 .. -364
3,476 .. 1,832
219 .. 161
460 .. 265
262 .. 154

62 55
4,396 . 3,730
2,924 .. 3,102
],370 .. 929
1,104 . . 1,657

vj'-;~~

..;:~;

,

Total 47,953 .. 29,693
" The xoncentration of the population in cities doubles
the deaths from the two first classes of disease ; the ratio of
deaths having been as I to 2.11 and 1 to 2.13.
" But there are great differences in salubrity, not only
between one city and another, but between different parts of
the same city. • This is strikingly exhibitedin a table, show-
ing the mean annual mortality of females in 32 metropolitan
districts. We have not room for the whole, but select a part.
‘! ANNUAL, DEATHS AMONG 1000 FEMALES IN DIFFERENT
PARTS OF LONDON.
teebapel
22
Shoredit ch ............ 32 St.' Pancras
Bermondsey
20
Holborn 29 Camberwell lB s
St. George, Southwark .. 27 Hadknev
Strand.
Stepney 24 square l7il
" Thus, tiie mortality among ferriales is twice as great in.
Whitechapel as in 1-fackneis and one'-half .gl'eater in Bea-,
mondsey than in the city. Dr: Fare says—
" ' it will be found, c&teris paribus, that the mortality „if
increases as the density of the population increases ; and
where the density and the affluence are the same, that the .-
state"of Mortality depends upon the efficiency of the ventila-
tion, and the means ,which are employed for the removal of
impurities. The next step in the argument is to establish
these two facts; which will be done by showing that in 32
districts of one large city the mortality increases with the
intensity, and fails With the diminution of the causes to ,
which the excessive mortality has just been ascribed.
Thd necessary deduction from the dough s series of facts, st
then, is that the.mortality has a tendency to increase'as the
density of the population increases, but the unhealthy tens
dency can be counteracted' by .artificial agencies. In other
terms, the mortalities of cities in England and Wales is high,
but it may be immeasurably reduced. A good general sys-
tem of sewers ; the intersection of the dense, crowded dis-
tricts of the metropolis by a few_ spacious-streets : and a park
in the east of London, would probably diminish the annual
deaths by several thousands, prevent many years of sickness,
and add several years to the lives of the entire population.
Similar- improvements would have the same effects in the
other cities of the empire. The poorer classes would be bene-
fited by these measures, and the poor-rates would be reduced ;
but all classes of the community are directly interested in
their adoption, for the epidemics, whether influenza, typhus,
or cholera,--small pox, scarlatina, or measles, which arise in s -
the east end of the town, do not stay there; they travel to •.1
the west endi and prove fatal in wide streets and squares.
.;
Thesregisters show this • they trace diseases from unhealthy A
to healthy quarters, andfollow them from the centres of cities
to the surrounding villages and remote dwellings.
Dr. Farr again observes,—` The occupations in cities are
not more laborious:than agriculture, and the. great mass of
the town population have constant exercise and employment ;
their wages are higher, their dwellings as good, their clothing
as warm, and their food certainly as substantial as that of •
the agricultural labourer. The poor-law enquiry, and suc-
cessive parliamentary committees, have shown that the fa-
milies of agricultural labourers subsist upon a minimum of
animal food, and an inadequate supply of bread and potatoes.
The source of the higher mortality in cities is, therefore, in the
insalubrity of the atmosphere. Every human being expires
about 666 cubic feet of gas daily, which, if collected in a re-
ceiver, wonld
.destroy other animals; and is constantly produc-
ing, in various ways, the decomposition of animal and vegetable-Ili
matter, yielding poisonous emanations in houses, workshops
dirty streets, and bad sewers. The smoke of tires and the's
products of combustion are also poisonous. All gases and
effluvia, like odours, are diffusible ; they have a certain power
of diffusion, which Professor Graham has expressed numeri-
cally, and all the emanations from human habitations in the
open country mingle, almost as soon as they escape, in the
currents of the atmosphere. But locate, instead of one
indi-
vidual to a square mile of land (the supposed density of popti-
' lation in the uncultivated forests of America and the steppes
of Asia,) 200,000 individuals upon a square mile, as soldiers
in a camp, and the poison will be concentrated 200,000 fold ;
intersect the space in every direction by 10,000 high walls,
which overhang the narrow streets, shut out the sunlight,
and intercept the movements of the atmosphere ; let the re-
jested vegetables, the offal of slaughtered animals, the filth
produced in every way, decay in the houses and courts, or
stagnate in the wet streets ; bury the dead in the midst of the
living ; and atmosphere will become an active poison,
which will destroy, as it did in London formerly, and as it
does in Constantinople now 5-7 per cent. of the inhabitants
annually, and generate, when the temperature is high, recur-
ring plagues, in which a tburth part of the entire population
will perish. But the health will be little more impaired by
residence upon 1 than upon 100 square miles, if means can be
devised for supplying the 200,000 individuals with 200,000,000
cubic feet of pure air daily, and for removing the principal
sources of poisonous exhalations. The latter object is partly
accomplished by paYed, even streets; by the scavenger, by an
abundant supply of water, by large, well-constructed, trap-
ped sewers, and by domestic habits of cleanliness ; but it is
difficult to perceive how volatic impurities can be removed.
and how a streankof uncontaminated air can be supplied
where the sun cannot heat the earth and air, where there are
no open squares' or the streets are narrow, or the houses are
only separated by courts, or built in ere/ de sac.'
" Having now before us the enlightened views of Dr. Farr,
regarding the immediate causes of so much mortality in densely
populated towns, and the means he recommends to be em-
ployed in mitigating those evils, we must at once see their
direct applicability to the condition of this town, for, in al-
most every quarter of it, we have narrow and closely crowded
streets, the majority being not more than 30 feet wide, while
ninny of them are only 20 and even 15 feet; and again front
those very narrow streets, courts are built in cul de sac, not
more than 12 feet wide, the whole being huddled together in
."_',184
the greatest confusion possible, apparently with a thorough ''"
and profound contempt of straight lines and right angles.
" In the seven adjoining streets of Lace-street, Adling-
ton-street, Henry Edward-street, more than 700 cases oc-
curred ; and in the neighbouring streets, Johnson-street,
North-street, anti Trueman-street, more than '3OO ;.and in
.11Iidghall-street, Stockdale-street,.and Banastre-street, more
than 320. In Lace-street alone, (I was nearly suffocated in -
a court there the other day,) there were nearly 300 cases; in
North-street, 161 ;in Stockdale-street, (a short but filthy *--
street,) 125. These streets are chiefly inhabited by 'lrish
and prostitutes.. The other streets in the north district
,4
worthy of notice are Preston-street, (120 cases,) Harrison-
street, Chisenhale-street, and the parallel streets of Stewart- '
streets near the Clarence Dock, and Bent-street, and Ben-
jonson-street,
between Scotland-road and Comtis-street.
" In the south end of the town, 'Crosbie-street, between
St. James's-street and Wapping, takes the lead, furnishing
183 cases, (102 of these courts.) Then comes New Bird-
street, with 151 cases, mostly in lodging-houses. This dis-
trict, in fact, bounded by Crosbie-street, St. James's .street,
and Greenland-street, gives no less than 742 cases, of which
about 350, or nearly one half, occurred in courts. - Next to
Crosbie-street and New Bird-street, Brick-street is the
worst in this district,' 112 cases having .occurred there.
" Thomas-street and Athertdn•Sstreet may next be men-
tioned, (between ParadiSe-street; and South Castle-street,)
the former being one of the 'worst streets in the south end
division of the town, and 117 cases of fever having been cy
visited in it. I shall only further mention Norbury-street, ,
(a short street near the bottOmsaf Gloneestersstreet,) and St.
Andrew-street, off Browplow,hill; although the latter is
much improved lately, it `gave 51 cases. In Toxteth Park,
.Mann-streeti (70 cases,) Wright-street, (54,) and Fisher-
street, are at, the head-of the-list.' ":,
Mr. Cunningham then adverts to the irregular and defective
system of sewerage prevalent in this town, and more particu

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