An inquiry into the morbid effects of deficiency of food, chiefly with reference to their occurrence amongst the destitute poor : also practical observations on the treatment of such cases / by Richard Baron Howard.

Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the morbid effects of deficiency of food, chiefly with reference to their occurrence amongst the destitute poor : also practical observations on the treatment of such cases / by Richard Baron Howard. 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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    who is familiar with the extreme destitution which often prevails amongst them, and the diseases thereby occasioned, is too often a witness to fatal results from gradual and protracted starvation ! Although death directly produced by hunger may be rare, there can be no doubt that a very large proportion of the mortality amongst the labouring classes is attributable to deficiency of food as a main cause, aided by too long continued toil and exertion, with- out adequate repose,—insufficient clothing, exposure to cold, and other privations to which the poor are subjected. This is a melancholy truth, and is equally to be regretted, whether it arises from the high price of provisions, the low rate of wages, or the improvidence of the poor themselves. That a human being should die from want of food is, under any circumstances, a most painful reflection; but that such an event should be common in a country which boasts of wealth, civilization, and a tender regard for the welfare of its inhabitants, is a mons- trous anomaly, and a stigma little creditable to our professions of Christian charity. In all densely populated manufacturing districts, where the resources of the working classes are en- tirely dependent on the fluctuating state of com- merce, and a depression in the one is immediately followed by a suspension of the earnings of the other, occasional periods of widely extended distress must necessarily occur. The temporary stoppage of large manufacturing establishments from acci-