A MEMOIR of Mr. Mansfield having already appeared in the Magazine for December, 1835, we must refer our readers to that Number for a detailed account of his progress and services in the Order. We may, however, state that he was born in July, 1808, and joined the Order in March, 1829. It will be seen from this that he has been a member of our Institution for fifteen years, and during this period his time and talents have been uniformly employed in furthering the interests of our members. We need not tell our readers that his duties have frequently been of an extremely arduous and trying nature, for even the most inexperienced will be aware of the difficulties which must be encountered by one who undertakes offices of high importance to many thousands of individuals, with a determination to exercise his functions in a just and correct manner. However pure may be a man's motives, and however conscientiously he may carry them into effect, it is impossible for him to satisfy all, but that Mr. Mansfield has been eminently successful in his endeavours to please will be at once admitted. Those who have the pleasure of knowing him personally will readily bear testimony to his kind and conciliating manners, and the anxiety which he invariably manifests to avoid giving pain in the discharge of unpleasant duties.

We know of no person in the Order who is better qualified to preside over an assembly than Mr. Mansfield; his excellent judgment, nice discrimination, and admirable tact peculiarly fit him for such an office, and his abilities have frequently been put to the test on occasions where superior talents only could have been effective. When the Memoir, above referred to, was written, Mr. Mansfield was the chief officer of our Institution, and he again fills that enviable but onerous situation. He has, too, with the exception of a very short interval, been one of the Board of Directors since 1835, and he is still as active and diligent as ever. We have nothing to add to the terms of eulogium bestowed upon Mr. Mansfield by his previous biographer, and, in fact, we are anxious to avoid anything which may have the appearance of fulsomeness; we shall, therefore, terminate this notice with the plain and simple words of truth. Mr. Mansfield is respected, and deservedly so, and is as unassuming in private as he is efficient in public; he is universally esteemed for his upright and gentlemanly bearing, and he is alike courteous and affable to all classes of his brethren. He has not yet attained what is termed the prime of existence, and we trust that for very many years he may be spared to employ his energies in behalf of that cause to which he has been so long ardently devoted.

VOL. 8-No. 2-F.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE SANATORY CONDITION OF THE WORKING-CLASSES.

AT the conclusion of our article on the Stability of the Order, in the last number, we intimated our intention of resuming the subject. Some observations, which appear in another portion of the present Magazine, have induced us, for various reasons, to withhold any further remarks bearing immediately on the matter at present. Our attention has been drawn to another subject, of vital importance to the community at large, but more especially so to members of Institutions like ours, which have for their object the amelioration of the evils incident to humanity. We allude to the inquiry which is now set on foot for the purpose of ascertaining the causes of sickness and death, and which has already attracted the attention and secured the support of a great number of those whose exertions have been most efficient in promoting good and salutary measures. The members of our Order are not actuated by that narrow and sordid policy which prevents men from looking beyond their own circle, and which makes all their actions centre in self. They have shown, on more than one occasion, that they were anxious to extend their charities to those who were not admitted within the pale of their society, and the public Institutions of many of our large towns can bear witness to the munificence of Odd Fellows. We would have our benevolent fraternity always in the front rank where good deeds are to be done, and the happiness of mankind can be added to. It is not enough for us to assist in removing evils when they have arrived; we must avail ourselves of all legitimate and practicable means to prevent their approach; we must neglect no opportunities of placing effectual barriers in the way of their progress. Odd Fellowship has this peculiar characteristic, that it would willingly take "the wide world in its embrace." Because we have great and peculiar claims upon one another, we do not forget that the rest of mankind are also our brethren; when we become Odd Fellows, we do not cease to be members of the great human family, and we are at all times ready to render assistance both with words and deeds, when we can do so without abandoning that neutral position which it has so long been our proud and distinguishing boast to occupy. If we provide funds for the relief of the sick and suffering, we consider it equally incumbent upon us, as philanthropists, to aid by every means in our power in removing the predisposing causes of disease and misery. Knowing that this obligation is universally acknowledged by our brethren, we feel that no further preface is necessary to call their serious and attentive consideration to the following observations.

A very peculiar feature of English benevolence, as indeed of everything English, is the number of private institutions for carrying out its schemes. These, however munificently endowed, or zealously supported by annual subscriptions, are certainly not sufficient for all the wants of the population. It is also certain that many who suffer from sickness or other evils brought on by poverty, suffer partly from their ignorance of the true cause, and partly from the want of any means of attaining redress with moderate resources, otherwise than by humiliations to which, very properly, they cannot bring themselves to submit. The society of Odd Fellows is an institution which has arisen from the feeling that there are certain circumstances in life, not always very easily explained in general terms, but severely felt when they arrive, and requiring

:

immediate and efficient assistance. Evils also of various kinds, irremediable but by an unusual wealth, are submitted to daily; we see them and feel them, but they are reckoned amongst those which are necessary accompaniments of human life in all places. When a father dies, his widow and children suffer; when he his sick, they suffer and when he is poor, and a convenient dwelling cannot be got, they suffer still more, because there are produced the beginnings of many future troubles. Hitherto, legislation has done little to remedy evils of this kind, and no wonder; the task would seem to be superhuman, and the very idea of bringing even the smallest degree of comfort into the house of every claimant for it, in such a populous country, might at first be looked upon with ridicule.

The evils alluded to have been pointed out as partly remediable, and a Commission has been instituted to obtain such information as will be sufficient to guide the state in devising means for effecting a cure. The evils which have been brought before this Commission are all which are in any way connected with the health and physical comfort of the inhabitants. It is known that the peculiar condition of a soil may have a powerful influence over those living upon it on some soils we see men strong and active, on others, weak, pale, and languid. A climate of the latter kind has been changed to one of the most healthy description, merely by draining the land, and regulating the vegetation. Around Rome, and in many parts of Italy and other countries, the inhabitants have suffered from the effects of disease and want for many centuries, without even attempting a cure. The banks of the Niger are productive of such an atmosphere, that it is scarcely possible to visit them and return alive. Many parts of America are in a similar condition, and several portions of Britain experience it to a great extent. Such places are marshy, and the vegetation of a certain kind is abundant; the removal of the marshes and the redundant vegetation has been found effectual in removing the evils, whether tried in more extreme cases in warm climates, or on a small piece of ground constituting an inconsiderable portion of an English or Scotch farm.

To understand in some degree the effects produced, we may introduce a quotation from Dr. Lyon Playfair :

Both decaying and putrefying matters are capable of introducing their own state of putrefaction, or of decay, to any organic matter with which they may come in contact. To take the simplest case-a piece of decayed wood, a decaying orange, or a piece of tainted flesh, is capable of causing similar decay or putrefaction in another piece of wood, orange, or flesh. In a similar manner the decaying vapours evolved from sewers occasion the putrescence of meat, or of vegetables, hung in the vicinity of the place from which they escape. But this communication of putrefaction is not confined to dead matter. When tainted meat, or putrescent blood puddings, are taken as food, their state of putrefaction is often communicated to the bodies of the persons who have used them as food. A disease analogous to rot ensues, and generally terminates fatally. The disease, little known among us, is not unusual in Germany. The decay, or putrefaction, communicated by putrid gases, or decaying matter, does not always assume one form. If communicated to the blood, it may possibly happen that fever may arise; if to the intestines, dysentery, or diarrhoea, might result, &c.

If these effects are perceptible in open land, where there is every opportunity given to the vapours to be carried away upon their formation, it may naturally be expected that in a population so dense as that of many of our large towns, the effects would be more severely felt. It has long been a subject of dispute whether the town, or the country, was most favourable to life; although a greater glow of health was seen on the face or the rustic, there have not been

wanting men to contend that the town had other advantages which made it preferable. Mr. Chadwick has thrown the statistics of several towns and counties into tables, so that further speculation on the subject seems unnecessary, at least as to the actual state of things; of course, it is impossible for us to know to what extent improvements may produce a change.

To remove

From this we see that the diminution in the average age occurs principally among the middle and lower classes, and the cause must no doubt exist in their habits, or in some circumstances connected with their mode of life. those circumstances, as far as they are known; to preserve in our towns, and in our private houses, a pure atmosphere, removing by efficient sewers all offensive matter; building in such a manner as to give a sufficient ventilation; supplying every inhabitant with water, that the houses and persons may be no longer exposed to filth and consequent disease; these, and many other points, have been the objects of inquiry of the Health of Towns' Commission.*

Dr. Duncan has shown that there are some parts of Liverpool in which there exist so many as 460,000 persons to a square mile, and Mr. Farr has given 243,000 as the number to a square mile in the East and West London Unions. The existence of disease and misery in many of the manufacturing towns, has by many been considered as a necessary consequence of the occupations. Mr. Noble, of Manchester, (a member of our Order,) whilst he does not deny the results, has contended that they are not necessary, but accidental and avoidable concomitants, an opinion which the state of many other places, not inhabited by a manufacturing population, certainly supports, if not fully demonstrates. The unhealthy parts of a town have been shown to be courts and alleys, low and badly drained and ventilated streets, places uncleansed by fresh air and water, places hidden from the light and warmth of the sun, where the atmosphere, impregnated with unwholesome exhalations, is never removed, but left to act as the putrefying gases alluded to in the above extract. The unhealthy classes are those who, sunk in ignorance and poverty, have no idea whatever of looking to any change in their habits or condition for an improvement, but seem to consider it a matter of chance. Very few of these classes are members of our Institution, because they are either deficient of the means to pay the requisite subscriptions, or are destitute of the requisite prudence which would prompt them to join our body; but we have heard of cases in Manchester where officers of Lodges have been deterred from visiting the sick, on account of the filthy state of the locality, and the noxious atmosphere of the dwellings. We would impress upon the surgeons of Lodges the propriety of their pointing out to parties so situated, the necessity of their houses being cleansed and fumigated as far as practicable; and in case of their refusal, the medical attendant would only be performing a duty to the members by bringing the circumstances before the Lodge. Disease and filth are so closely allied,

*This Commission is a measure utterly apart from politics, and is composed of practical and scientific men of every shade of feeling, who, on this neutral ground, zealously co-operate to improve the sanatory condition of the working-classes.

that it is almost impossible to remove the former without getting rid of the latter; and in justice to their funds, Lodges ought to distinguish those who willingly exist in the midst of impurities, from such as are cleanly in their habits.

The only part of the report published is that which Mr. Chadwick has prepared relating to interments in towns. He begins by showing that the vapours from decaying bodies are exceedingly noxious, and that such persons as are much exposed to their influence are certain sufferers. During the plague in Paris, the disease lingered longest in the neighbourhood of the Cimetière de la Trinité. In 1737, and 1746, the inhabitants near the churchyard of St. Innocens loudly complained of the stench. In 1779, in a cemetery which yearly received from 2000 to 3000 bodies, they dug an immense common grave, fifty feet deep, and made to receive from 1500 to 1600 bodies. But in February, 1780, the cellars of the houses in the adjacent street were so affected, that a candle being taken in was extinguished, and those who approached the apertures were immediately seized with the most alarming attacks. Many similar cases show the effects of such exhalations, and it is clearly proved that the same effects, to a greater or less degree, occur amongst us in the neighbourhood of burying grounds.

Professor Brande states that he has "frequently found the well water of London contaminated with organic matter and ammoniacal salts," and refers to an instance of a well near a churchyard, "the water of which had not only acquired odour, but colour from the soil;" and mentions many other instances of which he has heard, as justifying the opinion" that as many of these wells are adjacent to churchyards, the accumulating soil of which has been hea ped up by the succession of dead bodies and coffins, and the products of their decomposition, a filtering apparatus is formed, by which all superficial springs must be more or less affected."

Professor Liebig also has discovered nitrates in the town wells of Giessen, whilst the country wells are free from them. These salts are the produce of the decomposition of animal matter, and if they are found in a town where the living only are, how much more must we expect them where thousands of dead are always decomposing. In Giessen, the burial ground is nearly a mile from the town.

Many interesting facts have been gathered from the continent, where the subject has been investigated, and the result has been that the churchyards have been removed from the towns, whilst wells are not allowed within a certain specified distance. Mr. Chadwick also shows that some amendments which have been proposed to the present mode of burying, such as insisting on a certain depth of grave, are, from experiment, insufficient. It must be remembered that a body in decomposing is almost entirely converted into gaseous products, which gases are many times the bulk of the body itself, and, permeating all the surrounding soil, must necessarily be carried to a great distance, part carried away by the natural drainage of the ground, where the soil is porous, and part exhaling from the surface. As to the evils of interments in towns, we have said as much as our limits will permit, --the practice is an unnatural No animal will allow the dead to remain in the abode of the living: no savage nation, however low in understanding, suffers the presence of the dead in their dwellings. The early nations never permitted it; the Egyptians sent

one.