“Dear Reynolds,—As you are aware, I have attended many of the inhabitants of this road and its vicinity, and I do not hesitate to say that many of their diseases are to be attributed entirely to the want of drainage. They are—1st, febrile diseases; 2nd, diseases of the respiratory organs; 3rd, nervous diseases; 4th, diseases of the digestive organs; and lastly, cachectic diseases. Of the first kind, the very numerous cases of fever in the undrained districts that occur shortly after the autumnal rains, I take in the light of cause and effect. Rheumatism (acute and chronic) are the result of sleeping in houses the walls of which absorb the surface water and elevate it by capillary attraction to the height of two or three feet. The diseases of the respiratory and digestive organs are above the average number, and are attributable to the same cause. The nervous diseases I attribute to the poisonous gases exhaled from putrifying matter. They are—1st, epilepsy. In two families this disease attacked every one of the younger branches of the family, and they were cured by removal to another district. Many cases of spasm of a particular muscle, as one or two of the muscles of the face, the large muscle in front of the neck, and even some of the muscles of the arm; also frequent cases of the most inveterate hysteria, have been temporarily relieved by removal, and have returned again on their return home. Of the cachectic diseases, some are produced, others aggravated, by this cause. Scrofula is of this latter description. The cases of the children in your own family show that it is impossible to prevent suppuration when the patient is constantly breathing a humid atmosphere. This has also been the case with one of your immediate neighbours. That form of scrofula termed tabes mesenterica, I think, is, in many cases, brought on entirely by the same cause. Want of time prevents my extending the example of diseases attributable to this cause.
“I am, dear Reynolds, yours truly, “T. Taylor.”
Mr. James Murray, the Registrar of the Hackney-road District, in answer to the question, In what parts of your district, has the number of deaths registered in the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 been the greatest, in proportion to the population? states, “The greatest number of deaths registered, in proportion to the population, have occurred in all the streets leading into Old Cock-lane, especially the courts therein, and in all the streets leading into the Hackney-road as far as Strout’s-place, viz., Old Nichol-street, New Nichol-street, Half Nichol-street, Vincent-street, Mead-street, Turville-street, and courts therein, Collingwood street, Old Castle-street, Virginia-row, Austin-street, Gascoigne-place, and Weatherhead, Nova Scotia, Green Gate, and Cooper’s-gardens, and Wellington-row.” In what parts of your district has the greatest number of deaths occurred from small-pox, measles, scarlatina, hooping-cough, diarrhœa, dysentery, cholera, influenza, or fever (typhus)?—“The greatest number of deaths from the diseases named have occurred in precisely the same parts of my district, especially in the courts and in those anomalous assemblages of small cabins built on low and undrained ground, called gardens.” And in what parts have epidemic diseases been most fatal?
“Epidemic diseases have been most fatal wherever the greatest number of people are congregated on the smallest space, which is again the identical spot mentioned above, with the exception of Wellington-row and the gardens, where the deaths appear to be chiefly caused by their low, damp, and almost swampy condition during winter. Pneumonia being there the prevailing cause of death, with occasional instances of putrid sore throat.” And state generally the condition of those unhealthy streets, courts, and houses, as to drainage, supplies of water, cleanliness.—“These streets and courts have generally an imperfect drainage, suitable only to a former state. These drains are very near the surface; and some of the houses are built over them, so as to communicate a dampness prejudicial to health. The gardens herein mentioned appear to be entirely without drainage. The supply of water in the streets is generally good, but in the courts and in the gardens is derived from a main, to the cock of which the inhabitants have common access while the water is on, and have to fetch it in pails to their houses, which mode of supply I consider to be insufficient for health or cleanliness. The population is very dense, in some cases amounting to nearly 30 persons in a single house. As an average, an enumeration district may be taken, 57 houses, 580 persons. On taking in a larger district, 30,000 people congregated on a spot about half a mile square. The houses are universally let out in rooms, a custom apparently introduced by the French refugees; the houses built by whom are all on the Edinburgh Old Town or French fashion, with large rooms on each floor, intended for a family, with a common staircase. A single room now generally contains a family, with tools of trade, bed, and kitchen, which, coupled with uncleanly habits, occasions a constant effluvium, very oppressive, and, I doubt not, unhealthy. In the larger houses, the lowest grade live in damp under-ground kitchens.”
[66]. The Average for the previous six Years was £405.
[67]. Increase of 1840, from two tablets.
[68]. Extra-Parochial.
[69]. Private.
[70]. Collegiate.
[71]. Private.