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Leader (1850-1860), 2nd October 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1031

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      U science , to Government , is that practically occu-Led bv the newspaper press and political economy , hey should be perfectly dependent on facts or on icJaws of Nature , and perfectly independent of overnment * . Their judgment concerning it will len not be biased by fear or hope . On its acts j ientific men arc required , in common . with all qiti-> ns to form an opinion . The power which Govern-, tent exercises is their power , for the due exercise r which they are responsible . They sutler like ; her citizens from excessive taxation , bad laws , id wasting wars , or they share fully in all the Ivantages of freedom and of extended commerce , liey cannot escape this responsibility ; we are all > und together by one chain of mental influence , id all suffer or eniov from the decay or growth of

      . ciety . They should be prepared , therefore , to jmonstrate the advantages to the return of any le of policy they support or recommend . No great evil may perhaps ensue from a difrent conduct on the part ot our scientific men , icause we live under a Government controlled id even regulated by public opinion . But the ifgrence which humbles science here to the foot ' Government , operates in other countries where e Government continually commits . much rong that it is no better than a nuisance . In 3 k the princip le followed leads scientific men make ho distinction between Governments , =-rf they make any , it is in favour of despotic ivernments , because these continually bestow inours and rewards on the talents of which

      ey dread the free exercise . This practice , so ich admired by scientific men , and of late so jeli imitated here , originated in despotism , not freedom . In free states the approbation of his How citizens is the true reward of the man of ience ; in despotic states this is not suffered to ve expression , and for it is substituted the pen-> ns or the decorations of the despot . Thus the inciple of making science dependent on Govem-; nt makes it subserve the ends of despotism

      Lher than of freedom . Of society Government is only a part , but an pbrtant pai ' t , all the functions of which require pccially to be investigated by men of science , and extending which without investigation they cant answer any more than they can answer for asnting to a theory of astronomy or geology without ing satisfied by facts of its correctness . Of all m , they who profess to investigate and interpret

      2 laws of nature , while other men are engaged in sparing food and clothing and providing comforts d luxuries for their use , who pride themselves never surrendering their judgment except to ; ts and proofs , arc most stringently bound to folv out their own principles as to society . For them is * dishonourable to assume , without proof , bcuse t ] ieir self-love is gratified , that it is consislt with justice and truth and nature to humble ence below Government . It makes the noblest

      rsuits of man inferior to Court intrigues or en the brutal force which seizes political power . ic solicitors for honours cannot , like the professors political economy , nor even like the humble irnalist , speak , nor even form , an honest opinion the institution to which they continually appeal favour . They cannot , like the great preachers old , thunder into the ears of men in high station s truths which they learn from investigating turc . Yet is their mission as the observers and terpreters of the universe of fur wider import an any mission growing from a partial revelation , eeply impressed with a conv iction that knowledge the oxternal world is the suro guide to human jlfare , wo regret that those whose duty it is , in c general division of labour , to acquire this know-Ago , should regard it as inferior to an error do-^ ed from old times and despotic institutions .

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      upon me , in simple consistency , the duty of examining Mr . Nelson ' s facts , and the conclusions based upon them , and of taking the very earliest opportunity of signifying my agreement with , or dissent from , his views . Perhaps I ought also _ to premise that I write as one who shares the opinion of the Commissioners , which . Mr . Neison controverts ; and also as one who may claim to speak with such authority as is derived from a large experience of c onsumptive cases , some laborious statistical inquiries into the prevalence of consumption and the classes of persons whom it most afflicts , and some special inquiries , into the effects of overcrowding in producing that disease—inquiries which I have elsewhere adduced as fully supplying the very defect in the Commissioners' lleport to which Mr . Neison calls attention . ¦ '

      84-99 ; and this very combination of close sleepingiooins at night , with close workshops and factories throughout the day , acting on a very considerable section of the adult population , ought ( if the views of the Commission , in which I share , are sound ) to occasion an excess of consumption in the returns for the whole population . Accordingly we find , on referring to Mr . Neison ' s tables , selecting Abstract D as on the whole the most intelligible , that in Lancashire consumption , at the soldiers' ages , is nearly 20 per cent , in excess ' of the average rate for all " England , and in London 14 s per cent ., while it . is nearly 15 per cent , below the average in the districts characterised by least

      density of population . Now this is the sort of contrast we should expect to prevail if consumption be really a disease produced or promoted by density of population and overcrowding . Of the two aggregate districts presenting an inferior degree of overcrowding to that prevailing 1 in Lancashire and London , it will suffice to observe that in the one consumption is in excess , in the . other in defect , and that the same difference obtains in respect of all the other classes of disease specified in the table , including the zymotic class . But though the figures in the table are quite In

      accordance with the theory ( for it is not an hypothesis , tlujugh Mr . Neison prefers to give it this name ) that consumption may be produced or promoted by overcrowding , we are met by the objection that the class of zymotic maladies ( including all the contagious diseases — small-pox , measles , scarlet fever , typhus fever , [ erysipelas—all the epidemic maladies less clearly traceable to contagion , or not at all caused by it—influenza , ague * , remittent fever , rheumatism , cholera , diarrhoea , dysentery , quinsy , carbuncle— -we are met , I say , by the objection that this class of diseases increases with r ^ ncift- nf r » nrml « tinn ill fl still PTfintftr dpOTfi e : that densitof population m a still greater degree : thai

      y while cleusity of population causes phthisis to fluctuate between -j- 2 <> and — 15 , the same cause determines a fluctuation in the class of zymotic maladies represented by the figures + 42 and — 56 ; and this difference Mr . Neisou regards as fatal to the theory which attributes the deaths from phthisis in the army to overcrowding . I confess that I cannot see the force of this objection . To make it of any real weight the position of the soldier in barracks ought to be shown to be the same , or nearly the same , as that of the mass of the adult male population . But . it isin many important particulars altogether different . I will mention some of them .

      Scarcity of food , or unwholesome food , which is an acknowledged cause of fever find of diarrhoea and dysentery , often afflicts large communities when thrown out of work , but the soldier , in spite of a monotony in his diet , is well fed , Defective drainage and want of cleanliness are other causes of the same diseases which prevail far and wide in . every various degree of intensity among the general population , but little , if at all , affect the soldier in barracks ; for the barracks are generally well drained , and the soldiers are always clean . The soldiertoo . is more erencrallv protected from

      small-, pox than arc the adult males of the general population . Here then we have efficient causes of extensive prevalence and wide fluctuation in the class . of zymotic diseases among the general population , from the operation of which the soldier is , to a great extent , exempt . Hence the less liability of the soldier to the class of zymotic maladies . On the other hand , the soldier partly lives and wholly sleeps in the same barrack-rooms , which , considering that he is an adult man selected as exceeding the average stature , are excessively overcrowded . His case is not dissimilar from that

      of the men acknowledgcdly most prone to consumption—men who sleep , like their neighbours , in crowded rooms ut night , and work , unlike the more fortunate members of their class , in hot and crowded offices , workshops , and factories . The soldier , as 1 have snid before , p artly lives and wholly sleeps in rooms disgracefully overcrowded ; and , as a necessary conseq \ icnoe , lie suffers more tlmu ho ought to tlo from zymotic discuses , and much more than he should do from consumption .

      Of other causes of consumption ntlecting the soldier in a peculiar degree 1 any nolliing at present . SuiHeo it . to observe that * in my opinion , there is nolliing in Mr . Neison's paper , when fairly considered , lo upset tho theory of Hie Commission . His method is I ' lUilly , inasmuch as In ; rombnis ft theory founded on I lie overcrowding of living nncl sleeping rooms bv fuels relaling" lo

      Mr . Neison says very truly of the lleport of the Commission , that no other witness , nor the commissioners themselves , have supplied" any facts or numerical evidence leading to the conclusion at which they have arrived in their report , that overcrowding in ill-conditioned barracks is the mam cause of the great destruction of life , by inducing phthisis in the British army ; but Mr . Neison knows perfectly well that there is much evidence in existence which mig ht have been adduced in support of their conclusion , if it had been consistent with the

      limited object of his paper to bring it forward . I do not blame Mr . Neison for confining himself to the Report of the Commission , and to his own statistical inquiries , but I am anxious to have it clearly understood that there is abundant evidence to be offered in support of the conclusion arrived at by the Commissioners . Some of that evidence will be found in a lecture on the mortality ot the British army , delivered at the United Service Institution , aud published by Mr . llenshaw , of the Strand—a lecture of which I forward to you a

      copy . I now proceed to examine Mr . Neison ' s paper with the respect due to so able a statist , but with the freedom which such an important subject justifies and demands ; and that I may . not take up too much of your space , or run the risk of wearying your readers , I will confine myself to an examination of Mr . Neison ' s tables , and try the value of his own unexpected conclusion by the light of his own facts .

      If I understand Mr . Neison rightly , he dissents from the hypothesis of the commission , that overcrowding in ill-conditioned barracks is the cause of the excessive prevalence of phthisis in the army , on the ground that the deaths from phthisis do not in ? crease with density of population in the same ratio as the class of diseases now known as the zymotic class , of which typhus fever is a very conspicuous aud very fatal member . I use the term density of population in preference to the word overcrowdinff , inasmuch as Mr . Neison ' s statistical inquiries relate to density of population and not to overcrowding , except as inferred from density of population . This distinction is not a mere refinement , for it is obviously quite possible that there may be great

      density of popuhttion / vithout ^ ovcrcrowdmg . Our large model lodging-houses arc decided instances of density of population , for there are a great number of persona accumulated on ' small area , but in lofty buildings , with spacious and airy rooms . Ou the other hand , all our printiug-oificcs and many workshops and manufactories afford examples of overcrowding , but not of density of population , for the persons employed do not live on the premises . So that there may be density of population without overcrowding , and ovcrcrpwding over and above , and even independent of , density of population . Our barracks afford examples of density of population and overcrowding combined . There nro largo numbers of persons on a given area , and these persons live in overcrowded rooms . It should also bo understood

      CONSUMPTION IN THE ARMY . ( 7 ' o the Editor of the Leader . ') h > —Your impression of last wcok contains an aborato paper b y Mr . Neison on a subject of hich it ; is impossible to exaggerate the importance ; id you have yourself dealt with that paper in such manner as to enhance , if possible , tho interest hioh naturally attaches to i |; . I trust , therefore , iat in asking you for a plaoo in your columns , that may oxamiuo the value of tho opinions advanced f Mr . Neison , 1 am noting in accordance with your vn wishtfs ' . I . ought also to add , in justice to yself , that tho iutoroHt 1 am known to have taken i tho fate of the British soldier seems to impose

      that London and tho large nuiuulucturmg cities m every part of England combine density of population , measured by tho number of inhabitants on i \ given superficial orei \ > " \ vilIi overcrowding ^ in the workshops aud factories in which the population is so largely employed . So that we have two kinds of overcrowding- —( lie overcrowding which results from u large number" of houses being built on the same apace ( otherwise known us * ' density of population" ) , and tho overcrowding of which workshops and factories are the scene . -This twofold overorowding exists in a . high degree in London , and in the manufacturing towns of Lancashire , but certainly in a less decree in the mixed districts which yield tho respectivo averngo densities ) of &S-7 . 2 and

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      Wo . 445 . October 2 , 1858 ] THE . LEADER . 1031

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1858, page 1031, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2262/page/15/