The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-01 00:00:00

I was soon driven,

best modes I could adopt of the invigorating pl

it was

opiate. After exhausting the legitimate trials
of every usual remedy, I felt assured that the further em-
ployment of remedies would be unphilosophical under the

occasions:

existing circumstances. 1 declined pushing remedies so
far as that I might run the risk of poisoning his system,
perhaps damaging it for life Many weeks elapsed ; even
months, found him an invalid, now and the
drawing him out of doors for a few hours

a fine day

During this time, other members of the family began
to suffer with heavy feverish colds ;—and the servant was
never free from cough and sore throat.
The house did not feel damp exactly, when you exam-
ined the walls ; but still had a sense of chill, whilst occu-
pying the rooms, which a large fire in the small rooms never
quite destroyed. The chill was naturally ascribed to a
draught of air, which smell cottage rooms present more
notoriously than larger rooms, because the rush of out-
ward air is more direct from the doors and windows to
the fire-grates and chimney flues. (Those who do not
understand this simple but important subject of social
economy might obtain all they want ~r need to know by
purchasing the first part of the Liverpool Health of
Towns Advocate, at Walmsley's ; price Is. 6d.)
From the unusual amount of ill health in every member
of a family I had known and attended for five or six years
past, but which this few months required as much atten-
dance from me as the whole previous time, I made more
particular enquiries, and satisfied myself that it became
my duty to enjoin their quitting the house altoge-
ther. I had begun to suspect such must be ultimately
consented to, for weeks before it was made the basis
of my ultimate medical prescription. There was no
sewerage in the street; and though there was some
drain off for surface waters, sink stones, &c., and the
dampness was not palpable on the walls, yet there could
be no longer any doubt on the most obtuse judgment—
medical or not medical—that quitting such a house and
street was a matter of imperative necessity for health's
sake.

I remember years ago this plot of land now covered
with buildings, and on a very elevated part of the town,
was fields which always were more or less covered with
pools of water. The sewerage, not even yet attended to,
ought to have preceded the laying down of the founda-
tions, even of pig-sties. The health of our fellow-crea-
tures is their greatest source of wealth and temporal hap-
piness ; the health of the very animals is also our wealth,
and contributes to our health, or the contrary too plain-
ly' for me to dwell upon with an additional word.
When I name the district of Crown-street, the public
will see and appreciate the bearing of those dangerous
pools, as foundation-ground, though far elevated above
the mass of the townland ; which, if un-sewered previous
to being built upon, are full of risk to health, and eventu-
ally to life. it is not only in this locality, but in fact all
round the suburbs of this extending town, that the error
of building before drainage, instead of drainage before
building, tends so greatly to enhance the mortality of our
sicknesses. If an increased per tentage of deaths han-
t"t P”-

_flat argues a proportionate increase of sickness, with all
its numerous train of _evils. It is well the new Act is
at hand.

The family left the place, and toll( a house lower down
in the town, but which had been inhabited for several
years. The atmosphere was not so clear as the neigh-
bourhood of Crown-street had been; but the immediate
circumstantials of the house presented themselves more
favourable to health than the other abode. A very short
residence here permitted his constitution to' make the
necessary effort, and that with but little aid from medi-
cine. It is now about two years since, and he has not
had a return of the same disorder, nor have the family
been obnoxious tq constant colds, although they have
had occasional attacks from exposure out of doors, &c.
I have entered into the treatment details of this case,
for the purpose of cutting off cavils which might have
been otherwise raised. I seek always to advance a de.
monstration as near as the circumstances will admit of,