HH62/2/SUTHER/25

Transcription

[Page] 24

that the diffusion of air cannot be so well produced through their
nearly air-tight walls as through the more pervious (though at times
more sodden) walls of the older huts. So bad air exists in new
houses as in old hovels, and the same producing causes of bad air
are at work in our sparsely populated county as in the most peopled
towns; and that it produces the same effects is very patent by the
amount of phthisis especially, and occasionally typhus fever, which
still affect our rural population.
The fact that our own breath is our greatest enemy, that our own
foes are in this case literally those of our own household, and that
the causes of disease are none the less powerful because invisible or
slow in action - these are facts not sufficiently known by the inha-
bitants of our houses; but I am fully convinced that in the matter
of phthisis itself there is a link of connection between its lamentable
prevalance in our Highland counties, and the fact that there is so
much overcrowding, especially at night, in our rooms, coupled with
the inhalation, from floors and walls, of dust germs into, it may be,
systems constitutionally predisposed or otherwise in such a state of
health as to be readily liable to have this disease excited in them.
Any scientific observer would prognosticate that if a means were
desired to be invented, say for the propagation of tuberculous disease
among a people, no appliances could with more prospect of success
be procured than many of our houses as they are at present - actual
hot-beds for inducing or forcing on disease. And from minute
investigation it may, after more extended observation, be found that
in those parishes which uniformly have a high annual death rate
from this class of disease, the conditions will be found to exist which
directly contribute to such a sorrowful destruction of human life.
One who practises medicine cannot but be aware how frequently
a member of a family comes home to die with such a disease, which
also finds every convenience for being communicated to other suit-
able subjects; and again, on the other hand, because of the
inadequate means of isolating persons with communicable diseases in
small one or two roomed, damp, and filth-sodden houses, no check
can sometimes be placed on the wide spread damage which follows -
though it may be slowly. And the sick person, too, may be much
hindered from recovery by the confined space and disquiet of our
densely populated houses.
Many of our public buildings also, as churches, schools, &c., are,
unwittingly it may be to their owners or users, dispensers of sinister
as well as beneficial influences; for how often do we find them damp
and cold; or more commonly largely overcrowded and ill-ventilated,
with much dust, containing, e.g., the dried sputa of a phthisical
person, floating with deadly power in the atmosphere which must be
inhaled by the occupants, some of whom may have systems at a
reduced vitality, as when suffering from colds, &c.
Others, again, lay in seeds of disease at public gatherings as out-
door sacraments, funerals, markets - not from corrupted air, but

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from too cold and damp air, or wet clothes, all directly acting as
exciting causes of disease. People generally are so careful about the
purity of food for their stomachs that it is amazing there is no more
endeavour made to satisfy themselves as to the purity and unadul-
teration of air for their lungs. The difficulty is in warming it suffi-
ciently in our variable climate. Of course breathed air is warm, and
people take it so, but with what peril is it breathed, and at what
expense of human life compared to the necessary outlay for so adopt-
ing anew our originally malconstructed dwelling-houses and public
buildings, that the entering air shall be pure and warmed before being
breathed, and removed when fouled.
In many places, as if the contamination of human lung excreta
were not enough, are superadded many kinds of hurtful effluvia from
the too close proximity of lower animals: stables - it may be under
same roof - middens, choked drains and unventilated cesspools. All
together are most dangerous to health. It is not necessary that there
be always a nauseous or foul smell. Some of the most baneful gases
have no repulsive smell, and so it must not be reasoned that because
no sensible, appreciable smells are felt, there are therefore no potent
causes of ill-health at work in the vicinity of our dwelling-houses.
The same causes of disease are still permitted to occur, for there
is no check to the erection of similar buildings to-day, and no super-
vision of their plans before erection is begun. Thus, indirectly, the
want of a supervising authority, such as a Dean of Guild Court, is a
contributory cause of disease. This subject was brought under the
notice of the County Council some time ago, but no action was taken
to carry out the suggestion made.
Food. - That wrong methods of feeding and nursing babies are a
frequent and direct cause of their high mortality, especially in some
places, is an undoubted fact; and this also is true, that some of our
people, because of insufficient food of proper quality, and the con-
sumption of many articles of little or no value as food, are unable to
resist the inroads of some kinds of disease, and to throw it off so
readily as well-nourished people when they are similarly afflicted with
the same malady.
The want of Milk is particularly felt in some parts, and this is a
matter of wonderment. Those who lay themselves out to supply it
always find more requests for it than they can satisfy; but many of
those who themselves possess cows of inferior quality do not get such
amounts of milk from two or three such as they would from one of
the better breeds of milk cows. But there is, in any case, still a
deficiency of accommodation and grazing in many of the villages for
milk-producing animals; and I reckon that, because of the absence of
simple and nourishing foods of milk origin, many people are forced to
spend on other substances - many of which, such as tea, are certainly
not foods - much of their money in the oft unsuccessful attempt to
supply themselves with food; but the result is not the attainment of