Dr. Southwood Smith: A RetrospectLewes, Gertrude Hill
History
Dr. Southwood Smith: A Retrospect
Lewes, Gertrude Hill
Physicians -- Great Britain -- Biography; Smith, Southwood, 1788-1861
The marshy Bethnal Green and Spitalfields, where he first visited the
individual homes, and which he took Lord Normanby and Lord Ashley to
see, are now comparatively healthy places. He found them without water;
there is now water laid on to every house. He found them without
drainage; now a complete and scientific system of drainage exists
throughout the metropolis. The "£7,000,000 of public money spent on
sanitary reform," over which he rejoiced so greatly, is, since he spoke
in 1857, increased by all the millions spent on such works in the last
forty years.
His first set of "Model Dwellings," in the St Pancras Road, is now
multiplied by the countless blocks of such in all the large towns of
England. Sanitary Law and Sanitary Inspection everywhere prevail, and
the thousands of lives annually saved--the lowered death-rate both in
town and country--attests the power of the laws he was one of the first
to perceive and proclaim.
To show the saving of life in London alone, the death-rate in the early
"forties" was 26 in the thousand, it is now 19; whilst in the Model
Dwellings the improvement is even more striking, since there it is not
more than half that of London at large. To show how completely the
experiment he made to prove the possible healthfulness of such dwellings
has answered, it is only necessary to quote the figures given in the
report just issued for this fifty-third year of the Society which he
founded.
"The rate of mortality," we learn, "in the Dwellings of the Association,
was 9·64 per 1000, including 12 deaths which occurred in hospitals,
infirmaries, &c. In the entire metropolis the rate was 18·2 per 1000. As
regards infant mortality, the deaths under one year of age were at the
rate of 79 in every 1000 births; and in the entire metropolis, at the
rate of 161 per 1000 births."
Allusion has been made to the bust which was executed as a tribute to
the public services of my grandfather by those whom we have called the
Pioneers of Sanitary Reform--Lord Normanby, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord
Carlisle (formerly Lord Morpeth), Charles Dickens, Mr Slaney, and
others. This bust is now in the National Portrait Gallery, and
accompanying it are the following lines by Leigh Hunt, which proclaim
the services of his life in the cause of the poor to wider circles
still:--
"Ages shall honour, in their hearts enshrined,
Thee, Southwood Smith, Physician of Mankind;
Bringer of Air, Light, Health into the Home
Of the rich Poor of happier times to come!"
APPENDIX
APPENDIX I.
LETTER FROM MR TAYLOR, ASSISTANT RETURNING OFFICER OF THE
WHITECHAPEL UNION, TO DR SOUTHWOOD SMITH; written at the request of
the latter, for Lord Ashley's use, after their personal inspection
of Bethnal Green and Whitechapel.
289 BETHNAL GREEN ROAD, _Feb. 5, 1842_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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