The Cholera: the Claims of the Poor Upon the Rich

Part 1

Transcribed from the [1850?] Charles Gilpin edition by David Price. Many thanks to the British Library for making their copy available.

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THE CHOLERA:

THE CLAIMS OF THE POOR UPON THE RICH.

BY THOMAS BEGGS,

LATE SECRETARY OF THE HEALTH OF TOWNS ASSOCIATION.

Author of “Enquiry into the Extent and Causes of Juvenile Depravity,” &c., &c.

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LONDON: CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT.

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IN 1831 the Asiatic Cholera first made its appearance in this country. It spread consternation wherever it went. This pestilence, however, had its mission. It had previously swept over the fairest portions of the earth, and had destroyed no less than fifty millions of human beings. Its birth-place was among the swamps and jungles of India. True to its origin, it principally revelled in the crowded and neglected districts of our large towns, and gathered its victims from the homes of the poor and indigent. It sought out the abodes of filth and fever—it flew from one reeking nest of disease to another. The public authorities were startled into exertion; whitewash and soap were in requisition—a visitation of the alleys and lanes commenced—and, in many instances, the accumulated filth and rubbish of years were removed. A great many temporary expedients, all excellent in their way, were adopted. One unquestionable good was the result of these extraordinary measures—the higher classes obtained a glimpse of the condition of their poorer brethren.

The cholera at length passed away, and our exertions died with it. The stern teacher went to other lands, and we relapsed into our wonted carelessness, our usual indifference—we became easy and comfortable again. It is true we have had several official inquiries, and through their means much information has been elicited and diffused. Some improvements have been effected, and others are in progress, but nothing has been done commensurate to the requirements of the case. Our towns exhibit the same grievous defects. There is, as yet, no complete system of drainage and sewerage—our dwellings are in the same condition as to air and light, and other conveniences—and a supply of water is still a desideratum. The old fever-nests remain. We have a vast number of abominations in every direction inviting pestilence, and scattering abroad the seeds of disease, misery, and demoralisation. It is true we have obtained a Health Bill, but it is quite clear that the establishment of a central authority can do little, without the sympathy and co-operation of the public at large.

In this state of things, we have another visitation of the Asiatic cholera. We are again admonished as to our duties as men and Christians. Once more we are awakened to a full knowledge of the fact, that thousands of our fellow creatures are perishing annually, victims to public neglect. The great bulk of our working classes are placed in a condition unfavourable to health—a condition that forbids the preservation of the ordinary decencies and moralities of life. There is a responsibility rests upon all who have influence or power—a responsibility which cannot be shaken off. The work of reform is not accomplished because we have got a legislative enactment and a Board of Health. Every town-council and all parish authorities must see to it that the present warning is not neglected, and that it is not permitted to pass away unimproved. It is a question involving many others of great moment; and experience has shown that they cannot be neglected without serious loss, nor without entailing upon us great physical and moral evils.

The history of the present visitation will be familiar to all readers. The general statements are absolutely appalling. In Albion Terrace, Wandsworth Road, seventeen persons died within a fortnight, in ten houses, of cholera. In one house no less than six persons died. This house was occupied by the Rev. Mr. Harrison, a dissenting minister: he had two relatives staying with him,—Mrs. Roscoe and Mrs. Edwards. Mrs. Roscoe was first attacked, and died; Mrs. Edwards, who attended upon her, was next seized; and on Mr. Harrison returning from the funeral of Mrs. Roscoe, he found his wife attacked by the same disease, and that lady expired the next morning. Mr. Harrison, overwhelmed by this terrible calamity, fled to Hampstead. On the morning of his departure Mrs. Edwards died, and the cook was attacked and died the same evening. On the following day the three bodies were interred at Kensall Green; and on the return of the mourners they found the nurse who had attended Mrs. Edwards dead, and a note informed them that Mr. Harrison had been attacked at Hampstead, and had died the same day. It is important to look at some of the facts brought out before the coroner’s jury. Mr. Harrison had stated before his death that he believed the attack had arisen from bad drainage and from bad water. Dr. Milroy stated, in his report, that in the house in which the epidemic had first broken out in that neighbourhood,—“The cellars were swarming with filth and maggots, amounting altogether to some cart-loads.” The verdict of the jury declared that the disease had first broken out “in a house where the drainage was very defective, and the water bad.”

In other places we find the same causes actively at work, producing cholera. The seizures have been mainly in the districts notorious for bad sanitary arrangements. In every case we find that the track of cholera has been identical with that of fever. In a report just published by the Board of Health ample evidence is supplied that the seats of fever are also the seats of cholera.

The first decided case in London occurred in a court that had been specially pointed out to the Sanitary Commissioners. In the town of Uxbridge four cases occurred last October, marked by the unequivocal characteristics of Asiatic cholera. One of the persons lived in a house notoriously insalubrious, and in which some cases of malignant fever had proved fatal. In relation to it the medical man had said, that if ever cholera visited Uxbridge, he believed the first case would be in that house. The conditions upon which cholera extends are everywhere the same. They establish most clearly the connection between a low sanitary condition and disease,—between filth and fever; and show that the two diseases, although rarely, if ever, found in the same district together, are twins from the same parent stock. They have, no doubt, a common origin.

One word on the attacks of typhus. How is it that we are stirred into activity by an invasion of cholera? that we feel so much alarm? It is proved that the mortality from attacks of cholera, during its visitation in 1831–2, was not greater altogether than the average annual mortality occasioned by typhus. The effects of the latter disease are still more serious than those of cholera. And yet we sit down with the latter, and become reconciled to its existence, because it is common and always with us. If the sanitary evils which have been proved to exist almost universally were removed, cholera and typhus would scarcely be known amongst us; and yet “the annual slaughter in England and Wales, from preventable causes of typhus, which attacks persons in the vigour of life, appears to be double the amount of what was suffered by the allied armies in the battle of Waterloo.” Every day, disease and death arise from the presence of filth, from bad water, or overcrowding. They are put down in the bills of mortality as deaths by typhus, scarlatina, consumption, &c.—the true report would be, poisoned by bad air, killed by public neglect. It would not be too much to say that they are sacrificed to the indolence, incapacity, or waywardness of the public authorities.

To justify this view of the case, I may quote, from the report just referred to, a passage in relation to Dumfries. This town had suffered most severely in 1832. I believe at that time the cholera attacked one-eleventh of the entire population, and destroyed one-seventeenth.

“Knowing,” say the Commissioners, “that little sanitary improvement had been effected in the interval, and consequently that the inhabitants must be in as great danger as before, we called the attention of the authorities to the special regulations of the Board. To our recommendations the parochial board paid no regard. The disease, meantime, went on committing its former ravages. Thus, within the first twenty-nine days after its outbreak, there occurred 269 deaths out of a population of 10,000. No efforts being made on the part of the local authorities to check this great mortality, it appeared to us that this was a case requiring a stringent enforcement of the regulations of the Board, and we sent one of our medical inspectors (Dr. Sutherland) to organise a plan of house-to-house visitation, to open dispensaries for affording medical assistance by night as well as by day, and to provide houses of refuge for the temporary reception of persons living in filthy and overcrowded rooms, where the disease was prevailing, and who, though not yet attacked, were likely to be the next victims. The result of the adoption of these measures was, that, on the second day after they were brought into operation, the attacks fell from 27, 38, and 23 daily, to 11; on the fifth day they diminished to eight; on the ninth day no new case occurred, and in another week the disease nearly disappeared.”

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