It was under such pitiable conditions that large masses of the working classes of London had to earn their daily bread.
Lord Shaftesbury truly said that “the sanitary condition of these people was of national importance, not only on account of the waste of life, but the waste of health which every year threw thousands and tens of thousands upon the rates.”[89]
And large numbers of children were also employed under insanitary conditions, and were made to do heavy work for long hours, and the consequences to their health were disastrous.[90] That their constitutions should be undermined and their physical development should be most seriously deteriorated was a necessary result.
There was a chorus from the Medical Officers of Health as to the evil sanitary consequences of overcrowding.
“Overcrowded dwellings are among the most prolific sources of disease, immorality, and pauperism.”[91]
“Overcrowding—one of the elements by which disease is not only generated but sustained.”[92]
“Overcrowding is a constant source of fever.”
“The great difficulty of obtaining lodgment for the working classes has caused overcrowding of the poor in an unprecedented manner, and consequently the development of typhus which is considered to be bred in the pestilential atmosphere of overcrowded dwellings.”[93]
Overcrowding led to numerous, indeed to all sorts and kinds of diseases.