Other maps published by the Asylums Board show that whereas the
air-borne contagium, diphtheria, was confined more or less to the
crowded districts, enteric fever, which is a water-borne contagium, was
evenly spread over the whole parish. It need hardly be said that the
enforcement of vaccination, notification, and isolation, is important
in proportion to the density of population. The working of the sanitary
laws is a great expense to the ratepayers. I find it stated, for
instance, in the report of the Asylums Board, that for the removal of
the 260 small-pox patients from Marylebone the ambulances travelled
nearly twenty miles for each patient, and collectively 5,200 miles, or
about the distance from here to Bombay. Overcrowding is not cheap, and
I find, by a reference to the report of St. Marylebone, that whereas
in 1871 that parish, of about 1,500 acres, and with a diminishing
population, could be 'run' for about 660_l._ a day, it now costs about
1,100_l._ per day. It is right to add that the parish has no control
over a great part of the expenditure, but, nevertheless, 440_l._ per
diem is a fair sum to place upon the shrine of progressive municipalism.
If infectious disease occurs in our houses we have only to notify, and
the parish does the rest. We have put a premium on fever, and the lucky
man whose house is visited by a mild scarlatina is rewarded by having
his family maintained for six weeks at the public expense, and his
whitewashing done by the parish. If, on the return of a child from the
hospital, another child catches the disease, he can recover damages.
The Asylums Board is probably the most pauperising institution ever
conceived, but we are such cowards in the presence of disease that
financial and moral considerations have but little weight, provided the
unclean be removed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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