Report to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State For the Home Department, from the Poor Law Commissioners, on an Inquiry Into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain; With AppendicesChadwick, Edwin
History
Report to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State For the Home Department, from the Poor Law Commissioners, on an Inquiry Into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain; With Appendices
Chadwick, Edwin
Housing -- Great Britain; Public health -- Great Britain
“The town of Bradford lies in a hollow formed by the high land of the
surrounding country, a part of which forms the township of Horton, and
both populations, in about an equal ratio, are employed in
worsted-mills, built about the same period of time, in the same kind
of architecture, with the same appliances for ventilation and
purification in every respect, differing only in comparison as to
numbers both of population and mills.
Population. Births. Deaths.
Bradford 34,560 1 in 25·8 1 in 37·3
Horton 17,618 1 in 28·0 1 in 47·0
“The difference between the two localities will at once be seen, and
can only be accounted for by the difference in atmospheric influences,
the former population being resident in ill-conditioned dwellings,
without sufficient ventilation; the latter residing in localities
which, though undrained in many instances, are yet open to pure air
and breezes which never reach the town without the most perfect
contamination.”
Dr. Barham mentions, as an example of the benevolent foresight which
economizes the strength and life of workmen, and perceives that there is
a profit as well as humanity in so doing, that at Tresavean, a great
copper mine in Gwennap, as a substitute for the ladders, before
universal, machinery has been erected for the raising and lowering of
the miners. This, he states, will be effected at the cost of 2000_l._ at
the least, but this sum, it is calculated, will soon be repaid by the
saving of the time and fatigue of the men.
Such evidence as that above given, and as will be submitted in other
instances, will leave little doubt that, by a combination of practicable
sanitary regulations comprehending the economy of the residence as well
as the place of work, the enormous suffering and waste of life which at
present depresses large masses of the working population may be rendered
comparatively inconsiderable. The amount of such depression on the
mining population, in making it consist of young persons and more
transient, is marked in a return prepared by Mr. R. Lanyon, the medical
practitioner acquainted with the locality, and which was read at the
Polytechnic Society in Cornwall.
On examining the ages of 2145 _men_ engaged in mining, it was found that
their average age was 30 years, and that the average period they had
been engaged in work was 15 years. On examining the condition of 1033
_men_, artisans, agricultural labourers, living and working in the
vicinity, it was found that their average age was 40 years, and that
their average period of work then completed was 25 years. Of the mining
population one-third only had reached 50 years of age, whilst of the
non-mining population one-third had attained 70 years of age.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account