A supplementary report on the results of a spiecal [sic] inquiry into the practice of interment in towns made at the request of Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department / by Edwin Chadwick.

Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A supplementary report on the results of a spiecal [sic] inquiry into the practice of interment in towns made at the request of Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department / by Edwin Chadwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    “ Thus will this part of the work be freed from the inconveniences which accompanied and formed one of the widest sources of ‘ infection,’ and of the disgust which were complained of in the theatres of anatomy.” § 3. The statements of M. Duchatelet respecting the innocuous- ness of emanations from decomposing animal and vegetable remains, observed by him at the chantiers d'equarissage, or receptacle for dead horses, and the depots de vidange, or re- ceptacle of night soil, &c., at Montfaucon, near Paris, are cited in this country, and on the continent, as leading evidence to sustain the general doctrine; but as it is with his statements of the direct effects of the emanations from the grave-yards, so it is with relation to his statements as to the effects of similar emanations on the health of the population • the facts appear to have been imperfectly observed by him even in his own field of observation. In the Medical Review, conducted by Dr. Forbes, reference is made to the accounts given by Caillard of the epidemic which occurred in the vicinity of the Canal de l’Ourcq near Paris in 18.10 and subsequent years :— In the route from Paris to Pantin (says he), exposed on the one side to the miasmatic emanations of the canal, and on the other, to the putrid efflu- via of the voiries, the diseases were numerous, almost all serious and obsti- nate. This disastrous effect of the union of putrid effluvia with marsh miasmata, was especially evident in one part of this route, termed the Petit Pont hamlet, inhabited by a currier and a gut-spinner, the. putrid waters from whose operations are prevented from escaping by the banks of the canal, and exposed before the draining to the emanations of a large marsh. This hamlet was so unhealthy, that of five-and-twenty or thirty inhabitants I visited about twenty were seriously affected, of whom five died. In the carefully prepared report on the progress of cholera at Paris, made by the commission of medical men, of which Parent Duchatelet was a member, it is mentioned, as a singular incident, that in those places where putrid emanations prevailed, “ le cholera he s’est. montre ni plus redoutable ni plus meurtrier que dans autres localities.” Yet the testimony cited as to this point is that of the Maire, “whose zeal equalled his intelligence,” and he alleges the occurrence of the fact of the liability to fevers which M. Duchatelet elsewhere denies. “ I have also made some observations which seem to destroy the opinions received at this time, as to the sanitary effect of these kinds of receptacles; for, “ 1st. The inhabitants of the houses situated the nearest to the depot, and which are sometimes tormented with fevers, have never felt any indis- position.” § 4. To prove the innocuousness of emanations from human re- mains on the general health, evidence of another class is adduced, consisting of instances of persons acting as keepers of dissecting rooms, and grave-diggers, and the undertakers’ men, who it; is stated have pursued their occupations for long periods, and have never- theless maintained robust health. The examination of persons engaged in processes exposed to