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HOUSES PERMANENTLY UNFIT FOR HABITATION. 51
evils, against which I would venture to say (borrowing
a metaphor from my profession) that no
safety can be found except in amputation.
To dwell in hovels like pits, low-sunken between
high houses, hemmed in by barriers which
exclude every breath of direct ventilation—this
can never be otherwise than a cause of sickness
and mortality to those whose necessities allot them
such residence; and, if it be an incontrovertible
fact, that subsistence in closed courts is an unhealthy
and shortlived subsistence in comparison
with that of the dwellers in open streets, then I
apprehend, it cannot be doubted that such a manner
of life ought to be dealt with as a great evil,
and ought as much as possible to be interrupted.
A surveyor's inspection of the City would reveal
to you many places answering to the description
I have given; places to which no ventilation
could arrive except by removal of whole streets of
houses which wall them in.
To remove the well-constructed houses of the
City, in order that its wretched courts and alleys
should participate in the blessings of light and air,
might seem one method of conquering the difficulty
which is before you; but I apprehend the
opposite alternative, of proceeding to a gradual
suppression of all residence in the former class of
dwellings, may more naturally have your approbation.
To the latter aim, sooner or later, the sanitary
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