Report to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State For the Home Department, from the Poor Law Commissioners, on an Inquiry Into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain; With Appendices
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Presented to both Houses of Parliament, by Command of Her Majesty, July, 1842.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE.
1842.
Poor Law Commission Office, Somerset House,
9th July, 1842.
Sir,
On the 14th May, 1838, the Poor Law Commissioners presented to Lord John Russell a report “relative to certain charges which have been disallowed by the auditors of unions in England and Wales;” together with two supplementary reports; one a “Report on the prevalence of certain Physical Causes of Fever in the Metropolis, which might be removed by proper sanitary measures, by Neil Arnott, M.D., and James Phillips Kay, M.D.;” the other a “Report on some of the Physical Causes of Sickness and Mortality to which the Poor are peculiarly exposed, and which are capable of removal by Sanitary Regulations exemplified in the present condition of the Bethnal Green and Whitechapel Districts, as ascertained on a personal inspection by Southwood Smith, M.D., Physician to the London Fever Hospital.” (See Fourth Annual Report, App. A, No. 1.)
On the 29th April, 1839, the Commissioners received from Dr. Southwood Smith a “Report on the prevalence of Fever in Twenty Metropolitan Unions or Parishes during the year ended the 20th March, 1838,” which they appended to their Fifth Annual Report. (App. C, No. 2.)
Edwin Chadwick
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APPENDIX.
CONTENTS.
LIST OF PLATES.
Extent of evils which are the subject of inquiry
I.—GENERAL CONDITION OF THE RESIDENCES OF THE LABOURING CLASSES WHERE DISEASE IS FOUND TO BE THE MOST PREVALENT.
II.—PUBLIC ARRANGEMENTS EXTERNAL TO THE RESIDENCES BY WHICH THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE LABOURING POPULATION IS AFFECTED.
III.—CIRCUMSTANCES CHIEFLY IN THE INTERNAL ECONOMY AND BAD VENTILATION OF PLACES OF WORK; WORKMEN’S LODGING-HOUSES, DWELLINGS, AND THE DOMESTIC HABITS AFFECTING THE HEALTH OF THE LABOURING CLASSES.
IV.—COMPARATIVE CHANCES OF LIFE IN DIFFERENT CLASSES OF THE COMMUNITY.
V.—PECUNIARY BURDENS CREATED BY THE NEGLECT OF SANITARY MEASURES.
VI.—EVIDENCE OF THE EFFECTS OF PREVENTIVE MEASURES IN RAISING THE STANDARD OF HEALTH AND THE CHANCES OF LIFE.
VII.—RECOGNISED PRINCIPLES OF LEGISLATION AND STATE OF THE EXISTING LAW FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.
VIII.—COMMON LODGING-HOUSES.
IX.—RECAPITULATION OF CONCLUSIONS.
APPENDIX.