[251] “If it be supposed,” says Currie, “that some cases may be denominated typhus by mistake, let it be considered how many cases of this disease do not appear in the books of the Dispensary, though occurring among the poor, being attended by the surgeons and apothecaries of the Benefit Clubs to which they belong.”
[252] Moss (A Familiar Medical Survey of Liverpool, 1784), who had not the same means of knowing the prevalence of typhus in Liverpool as Currie, declares that “there has been but one instance of a truly malignant fever happening in the town for many years; it was in the autumn of 1781, and appeared in Chorley Street, which is one of the narrowest and most populous streets in the town, and nine died of it in one week; it was only of short duration, and did not spread in any other part of the town.” He admits that the habitations of the poorer class were confined, being chiefly in cellars; yet the diet of the sober and industrious is wholesome and sufficient, the comfortable artizans being ship-carpenters, coopers, ropers and the like.
[253] John Clark, M.D., Observations on the Diseases which prevail in Long Voyages, &c. 2nd ed., Lond. 1792; Account of the Newcastle Dispensary from its Commencement in 1777 to March 1789, Newcastle, 1789; and subsequent Annual Reports.
[254] Haygarth, Phil. Trans. LXIV. 67; Hemingway, History of Chester, I. 344 seq.
[255] Arnold Toynbee, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century, etc. London, 1884.
[256] Toynbee (u. s.) says of the time before the mills were built: “The manufacturing population still lived to a very great extent in the country. The artisan often had his small piece of land, which supplied him with wholesome food and healthy recreation. His wages and employments too were more regular. He was not subject to the uncertainties and knew nothing of the fearful sufferings which his descendants were to endure from commercial fluctuations, especially before the introduction of free trade.”
[257] Percival, “Population of Manchester.” Phil. Trans. LXIV. 54.
[258] James Lucas, “Remarks on Febrile Contagion.” London Medical Journal, X. 260.
[259] In Appendix to Hutchinson’s Cumberland, 1794. Reprinted in Appendix to Joshua Milne’s Valuation of Annuities, Lond. 1815.
[260] John Heysham, M.D., Account of the Jail Fever, or Typhus Carcerum, as it appeared at Carlisle in 1781. London, 1782.