Reports of Dr. Parkes and Dr. Sanderson, on the sanitary condition of Liverpool.

  • Parkes, Edmund A. (Edmund Alexander), 1819-1876.
Date:
[1871]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports of Dr. Parkes and Dr. Sanderson, on the sanitary condition of Liverpool. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    It is not for us to discuss remedies for evils, which the sagacious men who govern the city of Liverpool are far more competent to deal with than we are. We are not bringing to their notice for the first time the amount of drunkenness and consequent destitution which exists. These things are but too familiar to them, and some of the Town Council may perhaps think we have not drawn the picture in lines deep and sombre enough to express the reality. We will not presume to indicate the remedy for these evils, hut we will venture to say, that we think it impossible that those great employers of labour who show such remarkable talents for organization and administration, should not be able to deal also with the problem of the foul social life which many of those who labour for them are leading. Surely, if a combination of masters were ever justifiable, it would be in this case. The regulation of intemperance and of labour edn, after all, present no insuperable difficulty, if the existence of the evils we have noted has been fully realised. The difficulty arises from the opposition of those who do not believe what is stated, or who believe improvement to be impossible, and are content to let things take their own course. To any such persons we would suggest that, in a question of such vast importance as this, they should not rest satisfied with simply denying or ignoring the existence of the excessive vice and destitution of parts of the town. They should examine for themselves; and we have then no doubt they will not fail to recognise a state of things, which if not righted, will eventually, in some way or other, right itself, perhaps at the expense of the whole community.