Report on the importance and economy of sanitary measures to cities / by John Bell.

  • Bell, John, 1796-1872.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the importance and economy of sanitary measures to cities / by John Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    er and Bulow, Schwerin and Zicthen, and duck-winged angels, and two-headed eagles innumerable, would be found on their pedestals, holding their noses instead of grasping [as in the case of the generals] their swords. Berlin is still so far be- hindhand in the comforts of life, as not to have water conveyed in pipes into the city and the houses. Three hundred thou- sand people have taste enough to be in dreamy ecstasies at the singing of Madame Pasta, or the dancing of Taglioni, and have not taste enough to appreciate or feel the want of a sup- ply of water in their kitchens, sculleries, drains, sewers, and water-closets. No surprise need be felt that Berlin was scourged with the cholera in 1831, and again with still great- er severity in 1837. Putting aside drainage, the Prussian capital is, in the width and general arrangements of the streets, and the better ventilation of the houses, superior to the French; but yet the proportionate mortality from Cholera was much greater, or at the rate of nearly 2\ to 1 in 1S31, in the former than in the latter city—which, as commonly described, was so great a sufferer. In the second attack (in 1S37), the mor- tality was still heavier in Berlin, or, as the difference between 1426 and 2174 deaths. There, as in nearly every city in which the Cholera made its attack, the greater number of cases, and the chief mortality, were found in dark, narrow streets, inaccessible to the rays of the sun and to winds, and in low, damp habitations, especially near the water. Neglect of Sanitary Legislation.—During the last two centuries, colonization and incidental conquest have exerted a powerful influence on the political and social relations of the different countries in both hemispheres, from which neither Hindoo nor Chinese, Turk nor Tartar, Indian nor Negro are exempt. Consequent upon the vast extension and the open- ings of new channels of commerce, have been the foundation and growth of many cities, the inhabitants of which, in their