ADDITIONS AND NOTES

TO

THE FIRST LECTURE.

ADDITION TO PAGE 12.

AN accident occurred a few years ago, in one of the mines in this country, which, from some of the circumstances attending it, seems to deserve brief relation in these Notes. Several miners were suddenly cut off from retreat, in a gallery of the mine in which they were at work. They had not been very long shut in, when their own uneasy sensations, and the faint burning of their lights, evinced the deterioration of their limited quantity of air. They were not without a small supply of water; and one of the men happened to have with him some provision for a meal, which he had not taken before the accident. The men were perfectly aware of their perilous situation; but they were not without hope that efforts would be made for their deliverance. They awaited the result with patient and, I believe, Christian resignation. This state of mind, together with some regulations to which they agreed to conform, doubtless favoured their safety, as well as comfort, during the period of anxious waiting to which they were subjected. The man who had brought some provisions with him gave them up for the general good and I must observe, that this act of disinterested kindness to his companions was no less advantageous to himself than to those whose wants he was able to relieve. From the difficulty of getting at the men from without, some days elapsed before succour could reach them.-It is difficult to account for even the small supply of air by which the little company was enabled to live. Possibly a part was supplied by exhalation from the sides of the mine; and a part may also have arisen from the water in which it might have been dissolved.

The prevailing tranquillity of these men was a most faourable circumstance, since it tended to keep down both

respiration and circulation; as the opposite state would, in all probability, have affected both. This certain fact should be borne in mind by all those who may be exposed to similar dangers. The almost total privation of food, though it threatened the company with death by starvation, was a most important advantage as regarded their capability of enduring the deterioration of the air; since it has been shewn that after a meal a larger quantity of oxygen is required to be consumed, and the want of supply is exhibited in the greater distress felt by those who have eaten: hence the workman who generously devoted his little stock of food to his companions was perhaps the greater gainer by the sacrifice. I may observe, by the way, that fasting is found to be very conducive to the comfort of those who ascend lofty mountains. The same reasoning holds good in this case, as in that of those who are threatened with asphyxia by confinement in small apartments. One precaution was omitted; and I mention it here, in order to extend a hint which may be advantageously remembered by any individuals who may happen to be similarly shut up in a limited amount of air. It would have been better, had they contented themselves in total darkness.

Situations like that in which these miners were shut up, are apt to become distressingly warm as well as close. It is therefore desirable to check the production of animal heat ;-a point best secured by the absence of all exercise, and the diminution of clothing. The judicious employment of means, in the treatment of those who may be rescued from such a lengthened confinement, is of great importance; and every kind of stimulant, and, in particular, the supply of food, both liquid and solid, should be made with great reserve.

NOTE (1.) PAGE 14.

From personal observation, I fully concur in the following remarks, extracted from a Circular issued by the Poor-Law Commissioners :—

"The Commissioners have seen frequent occasion to regret that the abodes of the labouring classes-and more especially those in which the greatest proportion of cases of destitution

The

arise-are rarely visited, and in many districts are entirely unseen and unknown by their superiors in station. facts set forth in the Medical Reports to which the Commissioners refer, were received with surprise by persons who were not aware of the condition in which their own labourers were living, or of the neglected and dangerous condition of their own immediate neighbourhoods. The Commissioners have been informed, that the knowledge already promulgated on the subject has led to much voluntary and beneficial exertion for amendment, in draining and cleansing, and in various other improvements in the external economy of the labourers' residences. In the administration of relief, the Guardians act upon imperfect information when they have not the knowledge of the habits and important circumstances influencing the condition of the pauperized classes, which can only be obtained by a personal inspection of their usual places of residence."

The importance of providing suitable dwellings for the working-classes is a subject which has never obtained the general consideration which it merits. There is not an apartment, however miserable, whether in a garret reached by a dark and broken staircase, or in a cellar without light or ventilation and to which access is gained by a ladder, or a hut, consisting of one small apartment on the ground, devoid of the most necessary accommodations, and without drainage, -which does not meet with ready occupancy, wherever there happens to be a numerous poor population. The many and serious evils inseparable from such dwellings are incalculably aggravated by their accumulation: and yet, in connection with nearly all our cities and large towns, and even in some of smaller size, quarters may be found in which the evil exists. A recent investigation of a part of Westminster has furnished a picture of one of these districts; and it is to be feared that it only bears too close a resemblance to several others in and about London. It is easy to conceive the physical evils of such crowding, want of ventilation, and filth; and to imagine the numerous forms of bodily disease, and the serious epidemics, which are likely to be generated and extended in such

quarters. It is equally obvious, that where decency and decorum are violated, and the most corrupting and revolting associations are not only promoted but rendered unavoidable, the moral evils which result from them must be enormous; and it is no marvel that such quarters are nurseries of the criminals who fill our jails.

I cannot regard those who construct the miserable tenements to which I have alluded, or who devote the apartments of larger houses to the kind of occupancy which I have pointed out, as less than criminal, since they are guilty of sinning against the best interests of their country. When once families or individuals have been driven to these haunts -and necessity may drive some to take refuge in the worst dwellings, and under the worst shelter which may offer itself -their doom is almost necessarily fixed. How are they to rise from such a sink, in which every surrounding influence tends farther to depress them? and how can they extricate themselves from the contaminations of an association, the name of which is an injury to their character, which causes them to meet with repulse when they attempt to escape from it? The contrast of these evils is exhibited in the very laudable attempts which, in some instances, have been made to increase the comforts and accommodations of the dwellings of the poor. It is not my object to enter into a description of these, or to inquire what we may do, or how far we may go for this purpose, by means of Societies and the like, without in some degree defeating our object, by 'creating a state of dependence and a want of exertion: yet I cannot omit to commend the recent efforts of the Poor-Law Commissioners to promote improvement in regard to many of the points to which I have adverted.

My friend Joseph Marriage, of Chelmsford, has long devoted a portion of his time and property to exhibit the practical result of providing suitable dwellings for the labouring classes; and he has had the great satisfaction of witnessing the success of the arrangements which he recommends, not merely in instances in which he has himself put it to the test, but on a much larger scale, upon the

estates of extensive landed proprietors. Instead of a miserable peasantry, crowded into dwellings insufficient in the number and convenience of their apartments, and who deteriorated rather than enriched the property on which they were settled, the poor people have been reformed themselves in the reformation of their dwellings; and the benevolence of the landowner has been rewarded by the increased value of his estate, and by the larger and more regular returns derived from it.-Joseph Marriage has laid it down as a principle, that every labourer's tenement should consist of at least a day-room, and three sleeping-rooms; being one for the parents, and one for the children of each sex. When the family does not require this number of bed-rooms, the spare room may be occupied by single men, to whom residence in an orderly family may prove both a comfort and a protection.

The evils which result from defective ventilation being so considerable, as has been pointed out, it is evident that the application of the best means to secure a proper supply of air in private rooms and places of assembly is a subject of great and general importance. Dr. Arnot, to whom we are indebted for an admirable method of obtaining cheap warmth, has likewise pointed out the scientific and practical means by which the requisite renewal of the air may be secured, and the loss of our open chimneys, consequent on the introduction of his stoves, may be completely made up. The foul air escapes, as it ought to do, from the upper part of the apartment; and that which supplies its place is admitted without producing a dangerous and disagreeable current of air.

Dr. Jackson, an army physician of great talent and industry, which he devoted for a long time, with the advantage of the most varied and extensive opportunities, to the investigation of the diseases of soldiers, after insisting on height of roof as a property of great importance in a house appropriated to the sick of armies, assigns as a reason, that the air being contaminated by the breathings of a crowd of people in a confined space, disease is originated, and mortality is multiplied to an extraordinary extent. It was often proved, in the history of the late war, that more human life was destroyed