Thoughts on the best means of lessening the destructive progress of cholera : in a letter addressed to the Right Honourable Viscount Melbourne / by Joshua Brookes.

  • Brookes, Joshua, 1761-1833.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thoughts on the best means of lessening the destructive progress of cholera : in a letter addressed to the Right Honourable Viscount Melbourne / by Joshua Brookes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the wardrobes of the rich of their superfluous articles of dress ; by which sacrifice, whenever the dreadful visitation shall befall us, there will be fewer materials to imbibe in¬ fectious emanations. I therefore venture to recommend, that as many supernu¬ merary clothes as can be spared should be given away, by the principals of families themselves,—not to valets or to favourite footmen, nor by ladies to their suivantes,—but to vigilant overseers of parishes, who would impartially distribute them individually from the workhouse after they have been very distinctly marked; and who should caution all persons not to sell, purchase, or exchange the same: indeed such traffic, if possible, should be rendered il¬ legal. And here allow’ me to remark further, that previously to receiving them, each pauper should undergo a thorough ablution with soap and warm water in the bath of the Infir¬ mary : the hair cut close, or the heads shaved, of all those who feel inclined to submit to that additional, but very re¬ quisite process. My own observation induces me to notice the following attainable premises ;—viz. the Pantheon, two large manufac¬ tories in Great Marlborough Street, my late residence in Blenheim Street, the Equestrian Circus in Great Windmill Street, the Bazaar in Leicester Square, several streets unfi¬ nished in St. Paul’s Road Islington, many houses in the same state at the back of the Colosseum, probably the Ophthalmic Hospital in Albany Street, and possibly more than an adequate number in different parts of the town and its vicinity. These provisions being made, then the dismantling or de¬ struction of all insalubrious habitations ought to commence, and at least the doors and windows even of those which a surveyor might deem sufficiently eligible to remain, should be removed. In like manner the skylights of the Burling¬ ton Arcade, the Lowther Gallery, those of the Bazaar of