R&4h ROBERTS HOME REFORM. The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN APR % X ^ i t j 1 L161-- 0-.3Qa6-_ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/homereformorwhatOOrobe HOME REFOEM: OR, WHAT THE WOEKING CLASSES MAY HO TO IMPROVE THEIR DWELLINGS. PUBLISHED BT, AND SOLD FOE THE BENEFIT OF THE SOCIETY FOR IMPROVING THE COND^lTION OF THE LABOURING CLASSES^ At No. 21, EXETER HALL, STRAND, LONDON; ALSO, BY MESSRS. SEELEYS ; NISBET ; HATCHARD ; AND PARKER, LONDON. Trice 3d . ; or 2s. 6d. per Dozen, HOME REFORM OR, WHAT THE WORIvING CLASSES MAY DO TO IMPROVE THEIR DWELLINGS. BY HENRY ROBERTS, F.S.A. HON. ARCHITECT TO THE SOCIETY FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE LABOURING CLASSES. PUBLISHED BY, AND SOLD FOR THE BENEFIT OP THE SOCIETY FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE LABOURING CLASSES, At No. 21, EXETER HALL, STRAND, LONDON; ALSO, BY MESSRS. SEELEYS ; NISBET ; HATCHARD ; AND PARKER, LONDON. Price Sd.j or 2s. Qd. per dozen.. LONDON: SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, COVENT GARDEN. icMri^ + 9^^dJU«. ^>4 2 .« Aldiut 3i\ ^.3 ^ s ^ V\ J \/) TO THE HIGHT HONOURABLE ^ THE EAEL OF SHAFTESBURY, THE FOLLOWING PAGES '^xt lEnscribeU, WITH SINCERE RESPECT AND ESTEEM, BY A HUMBLE COLLEAGUE, WHO, EOR THE PAST SEVEN YEARS, HAS LABOURED WITH HIM IN ENDEAVOURING TO PROMOTE THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE HOMES OF THE WORKING CLASSES. Athenceum Club, February, 1852. The substance of the following Address was delivered, by request, to the Members of a Young Men’s Society. It is published with a view to answer the remark often made to its author, in reference to his “ Essay on the Dwellings of the Labouring Classes,” — We want to know further how our tenants may be taught to improve their own homes, and to keep them in a proper condition. HOME REFORM: OR, WHAT THE WOEKINH CLASSES MAY DO TO IMPEOYE THEIE DWELLINGS. The influence which the homes of the working classes have on the community at large, and especially on the more immediate comfort and well-being of their occu- pants, gives to this subject its now recognised import- ance, and its claim on all classes of society to active co-operation in efforts for their improvement. In our narrow lanes and streets, in our filthy alleys, and in our over crowded, ill ventilated, and miserable abodes, whether they be towns or in the country, it is not the health of the inhabitants only which suffers, but a moral pestilence has there its natural source, and fitting place of development. This physical and this moral malaria are not confined to the spots where they originate, but both are wafted abroad by the winds of heaven to pollute and to poison whatever falls within their reach, and thus remote portions of the community are visited for the neglect of obligations which rest on society at large. If any one doubt the importance of the domestic cir- cumstances and habits of the working classes, he has but to examine those records which are open to the investi- gation of every inquiring person, and he will find that a large portion of the crime and misery around us may be traced to the condition of the houses, and house- hold relations of the great masses of our population. The manner in which this evil operates is obvious. 6 EFFORTS FOR IMPROVING THE DWELLINGS. If a man be unhappy at home, he is not and cannot be happy abroad, although he may plunge into dissipation and vice in seeking a temporary oblivion of his sorrows and their cause. Whilst, with regard to his children, the injurious influence of the habits and example of their home is constantly opposed to the training of the day and sabbath school, and is manifested in after life. Within the past few years the actual condition of the dwellings of the working classes, and the necessity for their improvement, have been brought prominently before the public. Earnest appeals have been addressed, and many practical efforts have been made, with a view to enforce and promote this important object. The sym- p^athy of Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously mani- fested, and in an especial manner that of the illustrious Prince Consort, whilst in the same good cause many of the highest rank are enlisted, with the distinguished Hobleman who is foremost in promoting every effort for social amelioration. The Legislature has repealed the duty on bricks and on Avindows, and passed a Public Health Act, as well as two important Bills with reference to Lodging Houses, all of which measures are calculated to promote the health, comfort, and welfare of the working classes. Societies have been established and zealously engaged in the erection of model dwellings for the labourino- classes. Plans and instructions have been published with a view to facilitate the extension of such efforts, and it is encouraging to know that they are being adopted in many parts of the kingdom. May we not, therefore, hope that before long a great change will be effected, and that instead of the Avretch- edness which characterizes the hovels, rather than the homes of thousands around us, commodious, dry, Avell A^entilated, and healthy dwellings will take their place ? It is obvious that the labouring classes have but rarely the opportunity of improving the structural RESPONSIBILITY OF OCCUPANTS. 7 arrangements of their dwellings, and they are compelled therefore to submit to many inconveniences which result therefrom ; but there are other evils which it is in the power of the working man to remedy, or at all events to mitigate; and our chief aim is to point out how his own efforts may be best directed to secure the accomplishment of so desirable an object, or in other words to answer the inquiry — What may be done by the working man himself to improve his home ? And here we must begin by insisting that, however much of the physical and moral evils of the working classes may be justly attributable to their dwellings, it is too often the case that more ought in truth to be im- puted to themselves. For surely the inmate depends less on the house, than the house on the inmate; mind has more power over matter than matter over mind. Let a dwelling be ever so poor and incommodious, yet a family with decent and cleanly habits will contrive to make the best of it, and will take care that there shall be nothing offensive in it which they have power to remove. Whereas a model house, fitted up- with every conveni- ence and comfort v/hich modern science can supply, will, if occupied by persons of intemperate and uncleanly habits, speedily become a disgrace and a nuisance. A sober, industrious, and cleanly couple will impart an air of decency and respectability to the poorest dwelling ; while the spendthrift, the drunkard, or the gambler, will convert a palace into a scene of discomfort and disgust. Since, therefore, so much depends on the character and conduct of the parties themselves, it is right that they sliou Id feci tneir responsibility in this important matter, and that they should know and attend to the various points connected with the improvement of their homes. The fact that disease is much more common among the poor than among those in better circumstances, and that the average duration of life among the industrious classes is scarcely more (including children) than one- 8 GOOD TENANTS OBTAIN THE BEST HOUSES. half that of the wealthy, ought surely to arouse the former to some great effort of improvement in order to remove the causes of such direful effects. If the wife or the children of the working man be ill, he incurs expense, sacrifices time and trouble to obtain their restoration to health ; but from his want of knowledge he sees not the cause of illness in the absence of cleanliness or ven- tilation in his apartments, or the presence of dirt or filth in his neighbourhood sending forth poisonous ex- halations, and causing fevers and sickness amongst those who are subject to their influence. Habits of industry, economy, order, and cleanliness, will do much to remedy existing evils, and to render the most humble cottage an abode of domestic peace and happiness, whilst the improvidence and dishonesty which often lead to the want of punctuality in, or to the non-payment of rent, is an evil which affects not the in- dividual himself alone, but in some degree the whole class. Men of capital are thereby prevented investing their property in improved buildings for those from whom it is difficult to obtain regular payment, and whose frequent appeals to their sympathy and forbear- ance may diminish considerably the per centage return on their investments. There can, however, be no doubt that, as a general rule, the best conducted persons obtain better dwellings than their improvident and dishonest neighbours. A good landlord will give the preference and encourage such tenants, whilst the man who, though he be in the receipt of large wages, is a spendthrift or a drunkard, inevit- ably lives in a state either of embarrassment or of beggarly wretchedness. How great a contrast exists between the home of the man who, earning six or seven shillings daily, spends two-thirds of it at the public house, and that of the hard working sober labourer, who, though not in receipt of more than eight or ten shillings a week, takes it to his frugal and industrious IMPORTANCE OF TEMPERATE HABITS. 9 wife, who contrives to make her husband’s home a happy home, and more attractive to him than the beer- shop or public-house. Here, then, is the first point to which I would direct your attention, as a means within the reach of every working man who desires to improve his own home. Avoid the public-house and the beer-shop. Habits of strict temperance and moderation will enable you to provide more home comforts than you are at all aware of. Mr. Porter, of the Board of Trade, has shown that the people of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and chiefly the working classes, tax themselves annually to the extent of 57,063,230^., for the three excisable articles of spirits, beer, and tobacco. It has been com- puted that among those whose earnings are from ten to fifteen shillings weekly, at least one-half is spent by the man upon objects in which the other mem- bers of the family have no share.* Among artizans, earning from twenty to thirty shillings weekly, it is said that at least one -third of the amount is in many cases thus selfishly devoted. That this state of things need not be, and that if the people generally were more alive to their social duties it would not be, may safely be in- ferred from the fact that it is rarely if ever found to exist in those numerous cases wherein earnings not greater than those of the artizan class are all that are gained by the head of the family when employed in a department where education is necessary. Take the case of a clerk with a salary of SOL a year — a small fraction beyond 305. a week — and it would be considered quite excep- tional if it were found that anything approaching to a fourth-part of his earnings were spent upon objects in which the wife and children should have no share. Any man, whose lot is cast among the easy classes, exhibiting Why should not working people, as a substitute for the public- house and beer-shop, purchase a small barrel of good beer, and drink it at home with their families ? A 3 10 REMOVABLE CAUSES OF PHYSICAL SUFFERING. such a degree of selfish indulgence would be pointed at as an example of brutality. Closely allied to, if not necessarily consequent on, the improvidence which so greatly reduces the working man’s available means of support, is the habit of resort- ing to the Pawnbroker whenever by sickness or any other cause he is deprived of work; at such times the man of industry and forethought will be able to draw on his deposit in the Savings Bank, or to claim from his Friendly Society that temporary assistance which will enable him not only to meet the w'ants of his family, but also to sustain his credit with his landlord and to maintain that happy feeling of honest independence which ought to be cherished by every working man. Amongst the removable causes of much physical suffering to the labouring classes, as well as to many in more easy circumstances, is the want of due regard to the air inhaled at every breath — to the quantity of light in the rooms which are occupied — to personal and to household cleanliness — to the purity of the water which is drunk, and to efficient drainage, with freedom from the escape of noxious effluvia. Were the working classes alive to the great amount of disease, to the numerous deaths, and to the conse- quent suffering which result from the unhealthy state of the atmosphere breathed in their homes, they would instinctively use the means within their own reach for remedying so great an evil. The necessity for the admission of fresh air into all apartments occupied by human beings, and the import- ance of providing for the escape of bad or vitiated air, will be evident from the fact that every person during each minute vitiates a considerable volume of air, that is, renders it unfit to do the very work which breathing is designed to do in the wonderful machinery of animal life. Every one must have remarked the copious exhala- tion of moisture which takes place in breathing, and ATMOSPHERIC AIR AND COMPONENT PARTS. 11 which presents a striking resemhlance to the exhalation from the surface of the skin. In the former, as in the latter instance, the exhalation is carried on by the innu- merable minute capillary vessels in which the small arterial branches terminate in the air-cells. Breathing from the lungs is, in fact, one of the chief outlets of waste matter from the system ; and the air which we breathe is thus vitiated, not only by the subtraction of its oxygen, and the addition of carbonic acid, but also by animal effluvia, with which it is loaded when returned from the lungs. In some individuals, this last source of impurity is so powerful as to render their vicinity offensive and even insupportable to the by-standers, and it is its presence which gives the disagreeable, sickening smell to crowded rooms. Ahsorptioriy in like manner, takes place from the lining membrane of the lungs, as we have seen it do in the skin. When a person breathes an atmosphere loaded with fumes of spirits, of tobacco, of turpentine, or of any other volatile substance, a; portion of the fumes is taken up by the absorbing vessels of the lungs, and carried into the system, and there produces precisely the same effects as if introduced into the stomach : animals, for example, have been killed by being made to inhale the fumes of prussic acid for a few minutes. The lungs thus become a ready inlet to contagion, and other poisonous influences diffused through the air which we breathe. It is an essential condition of healthy respiration that a regular supply of pure fresh air be provided, without which the requisite changes in the constitution of the blood, as it passes through the lungs, cannot be effected. In order that you may understand and appreciate this important condition, some explanatory remarks on the nature of the changes alluded to will be necessary. Atmospheric air consists of about seventy-eight per cent, of nitrogen or azotic gas, twenty-one per cent, of 12 IMPORTANCE OF A DUE SUPPLY OF AIR. oxygen, and not quite one per cent, of carbonic acid or fixed air; and such is its constitution when taken into the lungs in the act of breathing. When it is expelled from them, however, its composition is found to be greatly altered. The quantity of nitrogen remains nearly the same, but eight or eight-and-half per cent, of the oxygen, or vital air, have disappeared, and been replaced by an equal amount of carbonic acid. In addition to these changes, the expired air is loaded with moisture. Simultaneously with these occurrences, the blood col- lected from the veins, which enters the lungs of a dark colour and unfit for the support of life, assumes a florid red hue, and acquires the power of supporting life. It is not easy to offer a satisfactory explanation of the process by which these changes are effected in the lungs. Whatever be the true theory, all physiologists are agreed as to the fact that the arterialization of the blood in the lungs is essentially dependent on the supply of oxygen contained in the air which we breathe, and that air is fit or unfit for respiration in exact proportion as its quantity of oxygen approaches to or differs from that contained in pure air. If, consequently, we attempt to breathe nitrogen, hydrogen, or any other gas not containing oxygen, the result will be speedy suffocation ; while if we breathe air containing a too high proportion of oxygen, the vital powers will speedily suffer from excess of stimulus. From oxygen being thus essential to life and respiration it is often called vital air, in contra- distinction to those gases which are incapable of sup- porting life. From these considerations, the importance of a due supply of fresh air wherever living beings are congre- gated must be obvious. It has been calculated that a man under ordinary circumstances consumes about 45.000 cubic inches of oxygen, and gives out about 40.000 cubic inches of carbonic acid, in twenty-four hours. INJUllIOUS EFFECTS OF VITIATED AIR. 13 The fatal effects of breathing highly- vitiated air may easily be made the subject of experiment. When a mouse is confined in a large and tight glass jar full of air, it seems for a short time to experience no incon- venience; but in proportion as the consumption of oxygen and the exhalation of carbonic acid proceeds, it begins to show symptoms of uneasiness, and to pant in its breathing, as if struggling for air ; and in a few hours it dies, convulsed, exactly as if drowned or strangulated. The same results follow the deprivation or vitiation of air in man and in all animated beings. Numerous instances might be adduced of the fatal effects resulting from the crowding together in one apartment a greater number of human beings than the air contained in it would sustain, and from the absence of all resfard to scientific rules in effectinof ventilation. The well-known instance of the Black Hole at Calcutta, and many other cases are recorded in Dr. Andrew Combe’s valuable work on the Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation of Health,” from which I have drawn freely in the preceding remarks. In dwelling houses lighted by gas, the frequent renewal of the air acquires increased importance. A single gas-burner will consume more oxygen, and pro- duce more carbonic acid to deteriorate the atmosphere of a room than six or eight candles. If, therefore, where several burners are used, no provision be made for the escape of the corrupted air, and for the intro- duction of pure air from without, the health will neces- sarily suffer. Professor Faraday’s arrangement for carry- ing off the air thus vitiated is very effectual, and its application may be learned at 110, Wardour-street. The necessity for ventilation is not confined to rooms occupied in the day, but is of equal, if not greater, importance in sleeping apartments, which, of the two, are generally by far the most unwholesome. If the windows be opened for a short period in the morning,^ 14 OF A DRY AND WELL- VENTILATED HOME. this is usually deemed sufficient, but no provision is made for the admission of pure air during the night, although on this mainly depends the restorative and refreshing effect of sleep. Curtains, and whatever tends to exclude a free circulation of pure air, ought to be avoided, and great care should be taken to change the bed clothes frequently, and to expose them to a draught through the day, in order to carry off the impurities with which they are saturated during the night. Small bed- rooms should be as little encumbered with furniture as possible, and the habit of stowing lumber under the bed be entirely abandoned. The want of a free circulation of air greatly aggra- vates the evil which, in many dwellings, results from damp walls and floors. In the construction of new buildings it is easy to provide for these two most essen- tial requisites of a healthy home — viz., that it should be dry and well ventilated; and if the working classes would, as far as may be in their power, practically mani- fest a sense of their importance, the same beneficial results might follow, which are already seen in London, where landlords begin to find that since improved accommodation has been provided in the Model Houses, tenants will not so easily submit to the defective and uncomfortable dwellings hitherto provided for them. Those who have investigated the subject on scientific principles, show that in a dwelling house each person ought to be allowed from 240 to 300 cubic feet of air to breathe per hour, or from four to five cubic feet per minute, and that by a continued movement it should be changed within that period. In a hospital the allow- ance must be considerably greater; inattention in such buildings to this all important provision has in past years too often aggravated disease, and caused a great destruction of human life. Ventilation may be described as of two kinds, natural, and mechanical or artificial. Doors and windows, with PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR VENTILATION. 15 the crevices round them, chimneys and fire-places, con- duce to the former; valves, fans, pumps, screws, and other contrivances are employed to produce the latter. Whenever a fire is lighted, the air in the lower part of the room is immediately set in motion, and a current begins to flow from the door and window, or any other opening, to the chimney, whereby much of the air which has become vitiated is carried off. This process of ven- tilation, in some slight degree, takes place when there is no fire in the chimney, and therefore bedrooms are much more healthy with a chimney than without one. In giving some ])TOjCtical directions for ventilation, it may be remarked that improvements easily adopted in new are not always applicable to old buildings; but the general principles should be carried out as far as cir- cumstances will admit, under the deep conviction of the absolute necessity of pure air for the sustenance of a healthy state both of body and of mind. In existing buildings, the ventilation of any living- apartment may be generally much improved, without any sensible draught, by the introduction of an air brick externally, and an iron frame internally, to which a sheet of perforated zinc is attached, and an iron plate hung to close it with a fall down rack.* In small rooms with a fire- place, the change of air thus caused, in addition to that from the door and window before described, is generally found sufficient to keep it in a healthy state. In every room an opening for the escape of vitiated * These ventilators are sold by Hart and Sons, No. 53, Wyoli- street, Strand, at 2s. Sd. and 3^. each, according to size. They may be fixed by any common bricklayer — a neighbour would do it for a trifle. 16 DESCRIPTION OF IMPROVED VENTILATION. air ought to be made near the ceiling, especially in small bedrooms without fire-places. In some cases this may be effectively done by carrying up a pipe through the roof, bent at the top; in other cases an opening may be made over the door, with a piece of perforated zinc fitted in it. In some situations perforated or ven- tilating glass may be used with advantage, always re- membering that where openings can be formed on the opposite sides of rooms, the air will be most speedily and effectually changed. Chimney valves have been much recommended, but owing to the practical inconvenience which is so often found to arise from the entrance of smoke, I have aban- doned their use, excepting in new buildings, when an independent flue or hollow brick has been carried up some height, and then opened into the chimney; this arrangement, with a valve, or a frame such as I have previously described, has proved very effective.* Nearly allied to ventilation, is the importance of a sufficiency of light in every apartment inhabited by human beings. It is a medical opinion that the amount of disease in light rooms, as compared with dark ones, is vastly less.” The rays of the sun are especially Fresh air may with great advantage be introduced into most apartments which have a fire-place, by conveying it through a flue, a tube, or hollow bricks in the wall, or under the floor, opening into the lowest level of an air chamber, formed at the back of the range or stove, or behind the front, which may be made to form a chamber about the fire-box or grate, being closed at the top by a metal plate or tiles, or by the boiler, if it be a range. In old buildings, openings should be made through the face or cheeks, for the purpose of admitting air to feed the fire, which will prevent the up draught of any flues provided for carrying ofif the foul air being checked, and therefore render the application of Dr. Arnott’a chimney-ventilators more certain than they have generally proved. Smoke and draughts towards the fire from the windows and doors, would be also prevented. In new buildings the air warmed in the chamber above described, may be allowed to pass up a flue formed for the purpose in one of the chimney jambs, and thence enter the room at any convenient height. It may also be conveyed to a cup- board for drying cloths, or be allowed to escape in an upper floor room, which would thus be aired. IMPORTANCE OF SUFFICIENT LIGHT. 17 beneficial, and ought not to be obstructed, but welcomed as harbingers of health and joy. To admit as much light as practicable, let the windows be kept clean, and if blinds and curtains are deemed necessary, let them be fixed so as to obstruct as little light as possible. In the rooms of vast numbers, there is a miserable defi- ciency of light, and a gloomy state of feeling is the necessary consequence, even if the physical and moral senses are not, as in most cases it is to be feared they are, seriously injured. Happily the recent repeal of the duty on windows has removed one powerful inducement to exclude the light of heaven from our dwellings, whilst the sanitary regulations of the Public Health Act in regard to the occupation of cellar apartments, will, when duly enforced, greatly diminish the number of inhabited rooms from which light and air are excluded. The importance of pure air, the necessity of adequate ventilation, and of a sufficiency of light having been dwelt upon, the next essential requisite to a healthy and comfortable home which we have now to consider is cleanliness; the want of this renders many a dwelling little better than a pigsty. Whence arises the difference between two neighbour- ing cottages '? In accommodation and in structural arrangements they may be precisely similar, even the same roof may span them both. A glance at the entrance door, or at the window, will reveal the secret, and proclaim that the presiding spirit in the one is that of order and cleanliness, whilst in the other disorder and dirt have the sway. If you doubt whether the sunken and dirty threshold, the broken door, or the patched and dingy window fairly indicate the internal aspect of yonder house, you have only to enter and to be satisfied that the good and practically important injunction, a place for every- thing, and everything in its place,” if ever taught to its immates, has had no more effect on them than the 18 EFFECTS OF DISORDER AND UNCLEANLINESS. kindred precept cleanliness is next to godliness.” Alas, alas ! in how many cases does the health, the happiness, the character of the working man gradually sink, from utter neglect of his own interest and well being ! Whence arises that close and noxious smell which contaminates the atmosphere of so many a dwell- ing, even where there is no deficiency in the means of ventilation, but from the constant accumulation of filth in the corners and crevices of the house h to say nothing of the more obvious sources of impurity which present themselves in every over-crowded abode. Is it in such a dwelling that we look for the faithful discharge of relative duties, for parents training up their children in the way they should go, and cultivating those dispositions and feelings which conduce no less to their happiness here than they are in harmony with the great end and object of life — the preparation for a state of purity and bliss hereafter ? That the want of personal cleanliness, and the dirty condition of a large proportion of the houses of the working classes, is one of the greatest barriers to their improvement, cannot be questioned by any one who has investigated the subject, and it is no less certain that the first step in the downward course most usually begins with want of cleanliness ; disease, depravity, and vice follow in succession. Yet few persons, however poor, cannot be clean if they will. Neglect of personal cleanliness leads to neglect of household cleanliness, and the latter undermines everything approaching to domestic comfort, even if it does not, as is too often the case, render the dwelling, instead of being a happy home, the very centre of moral and physical contagion. Lest ignorance be pleaded in excuse for the neglect of the duties here enjoined, your attention, and espe- cially that of your wives, is particularly directed to the following details, as a practical illustration of the most important requisites in household cleanliness. DIRECTIONS FOR HOUSEHOLD CLEANLINESS. 19 The floors and stairs of your dwelling should be swept daily, and cleaned at least once a week. The walls and ceilings, if not whitened every year, as they should in most cases be, ought never to remain two years without thorough cleaning. The chimneys in use ought to be swept at least every six months. The windows ought to be frequently cleaned, and repaired when broken, not patched with paper. Carefully avoid all accumulation of refuse or filth in the sink, and see that the pipe leading from it to the drain is properly trapped. Where there is a wash-house it should be kept perfectly clean. Ashes or other litter ought not to be deposited near to the entrance or to the back door. The out-house should be kept in a clean and decent state ; and on no account have pigsty es close to the dwelling, unless you desire that fever or cholera be attracted to your abode. The numerous regulations for personal ablution, and others of a general sanatory character, contained in the books of Moses, were doubtless intended to promote the health and longevity of the Jewish people, as well as to impress upon them the necessity for moral cleansing. In both these points of view they deserve the serious consideration of the working classes. The practice of hanging damp linen either in the living-room or the bed-rooms cannot be too strongly deprecated; the impurity of the air thus engendered, and the damp imbibed by the walls and bed clothes, is a frequent cause of disease. When the weather or circum- stances will not admit of clothes being dried in the ex- * Colouring in distemper, or water-colours, is better and more economical for the working classes than either paint or paper, as it may be done by themselves, and consequently more frequently, at a trifling expense. A little whiting and size, tinted with colour to suit the taste, is all that is necessary. Whitewash for ceilings may be prepared by mixing whiting with water, quite smooth, and about as thick as cream ; size is added to make it adhesive. Both walls and ceilings ought to be washed clean previous to recolouring. 20 IMPORTANCE OF SELF-EXERTION. ternal air, the wash-house or scullery is the only place where they can be hung with safety. — If the opportu- nity of using a public wash-house be afforded, do not neglect it from the false idea of economy, to the great detriment of health, comfort, and probably of domestic happiness. There are but very few cases in which these simple rules cannot be fully carried into effect; in some in- stances, scarcity of water is an obstacle ; and in other cases the situation of the dwelling may be unfavourable to efficient drainage ; yet every one has the power of doing something towards improvement, of trying to help himself instead of waiting to be helped, and of exerting himself to remove or overcome inconveniences instead of giving way to such as may surround him. Efforts like these are sure to be rewarded, if not by complete at least by partial success, and they stimulate as well as encourage those who have the means of increasing the facilities afforded to the working classes for improving their homes; whilst nothing can tend more to discourage such exer- tions on their behalf than the want of effort and co- operation on the part of the working classes themselves. In further pursuing our inquiry we must now allude to the great imj)ortance of an adequate supply of pure water and of efficient drainage. In many towns the labouring classes^ in common with their more wealthy neighbours, suffer much both from deficiency in quantity, and inferiority in quality, of the water with which they are supplied — this is especially the case in the Metro- polis. To discuss the remedy for so very serious an evil is not within the scope of this address ; suffice it to say, that the uncomfortable, filthy, and consequently un- healthy state of the homes of the working classes is in many instances greatly attributable to this general deficiency. Experience of the difficulties in the way of obtaining a proper and constant supply for the model houses built WATER SUPPLY AND EFFICIENT DRAINAGE. 21 in London, under my own direction, justifies tlie expres- sion of a very strong opinion on this subject, and of a firm conviction, that nothing but sound legislation, skilfully carried into effect, can grapple with, and remedy existing evils, both in regard to the supply of water and the defective sewage of the Metropolis. It has been justly remarked that ^^The gases pro- ceeding from cesspools and badly constructed sewers, which so many thousands of persons are daily inhaling, though they do not, in their diluted condition, suddenly extinguish life, are identically the same in nature with the confined sewer-gas which not very long since at Pimlico killed with the rapidity of lightning those who were exposed to its influence. In the state of dilu- tion in which they rise from so many cess-pools, and taint the atmosphere in numerous parts of the Metro- polis, they form a climate the most congenial for the multiplication of epidemic disorders, and operate beyond all known influences of their class in impairing the chances of life.” The following account taken from the public papers gives a recent and melancholy illustration of what has been stated : — “ At Sheffield a man and his wife were found dead in their bed- room, under very peculiar circumstances. The man was lying on the floor on the opposite side of the bed to that on which the woman was lying, but in a similar position. Both were quite dead. Both the deceased were about fifty-three years of age. On the inquest the following discovery was made : — At the south end of the house, and about four yards distant, there is a cesspool, into which was thrown, about a week ago, a mattress on which a sick man had lain a long time, and some mischievous persons had set it on fire. The mattress continued in a smouldering state all last week. The wife, who was asthmatical, complained of the stench from the cesspool intercepting her breathing, and her husband covered over the smouldering mass with ashes. A heavy fall of rain formed this superficial layer of ashes into a concrete, so that the exhalations from the smothered fire could no longer arise. The noxious steam consequently penetrated the foundation wall of the house, which was already decayed by the action of the feculent matter, and the fumes stole into the bedroom. It was a small, low room, very im perfectly ventilated, the fire-place being closed by a board. While the unconscious victims were quietly reposing, the room became 22 FORGOTTEN RESOLUTIONS OF SANATORY REFORM. filled with the noxious exhalation, which being strongly charged with sulphuretted hydrogen gas destroyed their lives so subtly, as not to disturb their sleep. The olfactory nerves had been previously blunted by the intoleral3le stench.” During the visitation of the cholera in 1849, when 2000 victims of the metropolitan population were carried off in one week ; when the visible nearness of death caused every household to tremble, the public were aroused from their accustomed state of indifference. Eesolutions were made, and a fixed purpose announced of carrying into effect various important and much needed sanatory amendments, especially the providing an adequate and constant supply of pure water, and an efficient drainage, no longer discharging pestiferous vapours to mingle with the air we breathe, to offend the senses, and to destroy the health. Two years have now elapsed since the withdrawal of this direful disease, and yet neither of these leading measures of direct sanatory improvement has made any sensible progress. The metropolis of modern civilization still remains, in the most important of sanatory provisions, far behind the metropolis of the ancient world. He who has traversed the Campagna di Eoma can never forget the gigantic aqueducts whose ruins proclaim how abun- dantly and at what cost Rome was supplied with water. Nor can a glance at the Cloaca-Maxima, or great sewer, have failed of producing a conviction of the importance which the ancient Romans attached to an efficient drainage. That to the neglect of the sanatory condition of the dwellings of the labouring classes may in great measure be attributed the awful ravages made by the cholera, is evident from the fact that in none of the Model Houses in the Metropolis did a single death occur during the whole visitation, whilst in houses closely proximate the cases of fatal attack were very numerous. In one nearly opposite the George-street Model Lodging House, several CONTRASTS IN DWELLINGS AND HABITS. 23 deaths were eaused in a few days by a eesspool under the eellar. Mr. Simon, the able medieal offieer of the Corporation of London, estimates that, of the 52,000 deaths which occur annually in the City of London, one-half might have been averted by the use of means at our disposal, whilst the untold amount of acute suffering and linger- ing disease caused by neglect is beyond calculation. Nor is this sacrifice of human life and loss of health through neglect confined to the Metropolis, it unquestionably extends, in a greater or in a less degree, to every large town throughout the kingdom, and even to many small towns and villages. The contrasts, however, which exist, show how much depends on the inhabitants themselves; take, for ex- ample, the evidence of a public inspector, who thus writes — One marked and favourable peculiarity even amongst the poorest Norwich weavers, is their strict attention to cleanliness and decency in their dwellings — a token of self-respect and a proof of ideas and habits, of which the severest privations in food and dress did not seem to be able to deprive them. Their rooms might be destitute of almost all the neccesary articles of furniture; but the few that remained were clean, the walls and staircases whitewashed, the floors carefully swept and washed, the court or alley cleared of everything offensive; the children wearing shoes and stockings, however sorry in kind, and the clothes not raggedy however incongruously patched and darned. ^ Cleanli- ness and propriety,’ said one man, ^ are, in spite of our poverty, the pride of Norwich people, who would have nothing to say to dirty neighbours.’” This laudable peculiarity is not confined to the county town, but is manifest also in the cottages of the Norfolk peasantry, many of whom, though in receipt of wages not exceed- ing eight to ten shillings per week, add to scrupulous cleanliness a degree of taste, which is manifested by the 24 CONC'LUSTON. table coverlet, the chair back net, and the chimney ornament. In contrast, let us hear the evidence of a clergyman, the Eev. Charles Hensley, who says of Gains- borough — Smoking is very general among the women, and opium eating prevails very commonly amongst the poor. I think that both these habits foster idleness, and in consequence their houses are not kept clean and tidy. The men find nothing but discomfort on returning from work, and resort to the public-house, and the extent of drunkenness may be partly attributed to that. I am of opinion that uncleanliness and discomfort cause the females to use the stimulants I have named. I think there is no doubt that those (districts) in the worst sanatory condition are lowest as to their social and moral state.” I might quote innumerable witnesses to prove the frightful extent to which the homes of the working classes, instead of being the abodes of peace, joy, and happiness, are the very reverse, and this in no incon- siderable degree through either their own misconduct, improvidence, or neglect. My desire is not only to impress on your minds the magnitude of the evils brought under consideration, but also to point out and enforce the remedies within your own reach; and in commending them to your serious reflection, with the firm assurance that the state of the homes of the working classes is intimately connected with their best interests, as well as their physical health and comfort, I will not conceal my settled conviction that the Word of God, made the guiding rule of conduct, alone gives security for the enjoyment of a truly and permanently happy home ; whilst the practical effects of a disregard for its sacred precepts are nowhere more obvious than in the home of the drunkard, the spend- thrift, and the sensualist, of those whose vicious habits have rendered them insensible to dirt and wretchedness. THE END. Publications by the Society For Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, 21, Exeter Hall, London. H. R. H. Prince Albert's Model Houses for Families, built in Hyde Park, in connexion with the Great Exhibition of 1851. By Henry Roberts, Esq., F. S. A. Numerous Illustrative Plates, W orking Drawings, Specification and Estimate. Cloth, gilt edges. 5s. A Working Drawing, on One Sheet, giving Details of Construction in Hollow-brickwork, illustrative ofH.R.H. Prince Albert’s Model Houses, with Supple- mentary Matter. Price 2s. 6d. The Dwellings of the Labouring Classes, their Arrangement and Construction, with Plans, &c. of Model Houses, and Designs for Dwellings adapted to Towns as well as to Agricultural and Manufacturing Districts. By Henry Roberts, Esq., F.S. A. Second Edition. Cloth, 3s. Cottage Pamphlet, containing a Plan and brief Description of H.R.H. Prince Albert’s Model Houses. — Plans and Suggestions for Cottages in Agricultural Dis- tricts, and for a Lodging House for unmarried Labourers, adapted to Agricultural, Mining and Quarry Districts, with Remarks on the Construction of Cottages. Price 6d. Working Drawings, at a large scale, with Speci- fications, &c., for Agricultural Labourers’ Cottages, and for a Lodging House, according to the Designs given in the Essay on the Dwellings of the Labouring Classes, and in the Cottage Pamphlet. Each Design complete on one sheet, price 2s. 5d. Specification for ditto. Is. Bills of Quantities, Is. 6d. Or one sheet of Working Drawings, with Specification and Bill of Quantities, 5s. Plans' and Descriptions of the Model Dwellings in London, built and fitted up by the Society. Price 2d. The Acts for Kegulating Common Lodging Houses, and for Establishing Lodging Houses for the Labouring Classes. Edited, with Comments and Anno- tations. By R. A. Strange, Esq., Barrister. Price Is. Rules for a Friendly Society. Cheap and Nutritious Food for Cottagers’ Families, price Id. Savill & Edwards, Printers, 4, Chandos Street, Covent Garden. f