Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 682: January 20, 1877.Various
Science
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 682: January 20, 1877.
Various
Periodicals
The streets have plenty of life and movement in them, but a minimum of
rattling jarring noises, owing to the heavy traffic being conducted
through the underground railways. Most of the principal factories
are at a short distance from the city; as are also large clusters of
workrooms let out singly. A workman can have a workroom on payment of
a moderate weekly rent; in it he can work as many hours as he pleases,
but must not make it his home. Each block is under the charge of a
superintendent, and under the supervision of a sanitary inspector.
The artisan goes away from his home to work, like the lawyer, the
merchant, or the banker. There might appear to be some waste of time
in this arrangement; but it is more than compensated, in the opinion
of the citizens of Hygeia, by comparative immunity from disease: 'It
has,' says Dr Richardson, 'been found in our towns generally, that men
and women who are engaged in industrial callings, such as tailoring,
shoe-making, dressmaking, lace-making, and the like, work at their own
homes among their children. That this is a common cause of disease is
well understood. I have myself seen the half-made riding-habit that
was ultimately to clothe some wealthy damsel rejoicing in her morning
ride, act as the coverlet of a poor tailor's child stricken with
malignant scarlet fever. These things must be, in the ordinary course
of events under our present bad system. In the model system we have
in our mind's eye, these dangers are met by the simple provision of
workmen's offices or workrooms.'
Public laundries are a feature in Hygeia. If the washing of a small
family is done at home, the housewife knows with what she has to deal;
but when 'the washing is put out,' the linen of the family may, for
aught she knows, have been mixed before, during, or after the process
of washing with the linen from the bed or the body of some sufferer
from a contagious malady. Some of the most fatal outbreaks of disease
are known to have been communicated in this manner. To avoid these
evils, public laundries are established in the outskirts of Hygeia,
each with an extensive drying-ground, and all under sanitary inspection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account