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JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET,

LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.

DESCRIPTIVE ESSAYS.

THE AIR WE LIVE IN.

IN the winter of 1837, fever was unusually severe in Spitalfields, and alarm being thereby excited of a return of the cholera, the Poor-Law Commissioners deemed it their duty to send thither Dr. Arnott, Dr. S. Smith, and Dr. Kay, to inquire as to the removable causes of disease; and these experienced physicians, in their Report, dated May 12, 1838, having declared the chief causes to be bad drainage and bad ventilation, the Commissioners, without loss of time, represented to Lord John Russell "the urgent necessity of applying to the Legislature for immediate measures for the removal of those constantly acting causes of destitution and death. "All delays," they said, "must be attended with extensive misery; in a large proportion of cases the labouring classes, though aware of the surrounding causes of evil, have few or no means of avoiding them, and little or no choice of their dwellings." But although much was said and done for the Hill Coolies and the Blacks, no notice whatever was

VOL. II.

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taken of this appeal; until, towards the end of the Session of 1839, the Bishop of London, in the House of Lords, not only called the attention of the Government to the Report, but moved an address to Her Majesty, praying for an inquiry as to the extent to which the causes of the discase-stated by the Poor-Law Commissioners to prevail among the labouring classes of the metropolis-prevail also among the labouring classes in other parts of the kingdom. This address being carried, Lord John Russell directed the Poor-Law Board to institute such an inquiry, and the Commissioners, in the month of November following, gave instructions accordingly to their assistants. They likewise addressed letters to the several Boards of Guardians, as well as to their medical officers, requesting them severally to furnish answers to a series of questions enclosed: besides which, a circular letter to the dispensary-surgeons and medical practitioners having been forwarded to the provosts of Scotch Burghs, a resolution was passed by the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, recommending that all members and licentiates of that body should give every aid to this inquiry. In due time, from a number of medical men, residing in different towns and districts of Scotland, as well as of England, very valuable reports were obtained.

As soon as this mass of MS. was collected in Somerset House, its bulk being evidently more than the Commissioners or Parliament could find leisure to examine, the Secretary of the Board was directed to digest it; and, after comparing its various statements with such

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