“In this parish are at least 4,000 houses rated under £10 a year, and containing 30,000 persons.”
1858. 1st Quarter:—
“Of smallpox and vaccination there are some who neglect this great precaution, and so not only imperil themselves but others. Here is the evil, and indeed, I believe, the reason why the disease is not altogether banished.”
“… A case registered as diphtheria occurred and died; it began in one of the very worst localities and then extended to opener and better places. Thus it is that modern society neglects the social condition of its poor, and the poor with a well-ordered revenge bring disease and death as a consequence.”
Referring to some tables he compiled, he said:—
“In this table appear 42 deaths from consumption; it has but recently become prominent how very preventable a disease this is … the principal causes have here been made obvious enough: sleeping closely in ill-ventilated rooms, overcrowding, and bad ventilation.”
“It is now quite established that, with close overcrowded rooms—that is, by assiduously causing the continued breathing a tainted atmosphere—you may insure consumption in the most healthy.
“3,500 years ago the Jewish legislator promulgated laws and duties almost identical with those we are now engaged in carrying out as new in the nineteenth century—but so it is.”
“… There is a great deal of carelessness touching human life, and a great want of common sense or serious thought in the preserving it. Much is left to chance. There is either fatalism or stolid indifference upon the matter pervading highest society, and the poor, driven as they are from richer districts into poorer neighbourhoods, can scarcely help themselves; they lose at last all healthy communication with richer or better neighbours, and all taste for pure air and healthy pursuits; they pack close, they descend a little, often a great deal, toward the lower animals, and so live neither for this world nor the next.”
“There are 7,000 houses in this parish. 890 of these have been visited this year, and in 756 the work ordered has been carried out—sometimes in a most slovenly manner—an apparent compliance with your orders. In the poorer districts the most incompetent men are employed to plaster over, patch over, whitewash, or cover over the evils ordered to be not covered but amended. Still a great amount of good work has been done.