deprived of all means of cleanliness, of water itself, since pipes
are laid only when paid for, and the rivers so polluted that they are
useless for such purposes; they are obliged to throw all offal and
garbage, all dirty water, often all disgusting drainage and excrement
into the streets, being without other means of disposing of them; they
are thus compelled to infect the region of their own dwellings. Nor is
this enough. All conceivable evils are heaped upon the heads of the
poor. If the population of great cities is too dense in general, it is
they in particular who are packed into the least space. As though the
vitiated atmosphere of the streets were not enough, they are penned in
dozens into single rooms, so that the air which they breathe at night is
enough in itself to stifle them. They are given damp dwellings, cellar
dens that are not waterproof from below, or garrets that leak from above.
Their houses are so built that the clammy air cannot escape. They are
supplied bad, tattered, or rotten clothing, adulterated and indigestible
food. They are exposed to the most exciting changes of mental condition,
the most violent vibrations between hope and fear; they are hunted like
game, and not permitted to attain peace of mind and quiet enjoyment of
life. They are deprived of all enjoyments except that of sexual
indulgence and drunkenness, are worked every day to the point of complete
exhaustion of their mental and physical energies, and are thus constantly
spurred on to the maddest excess in the only two enjoyments at their
command. And if they surmount all this, they fall victims to want of
work in a crisis when all the little is taken from them that had hitherto
been vouchsafed them.

How is it possible, under such conditions, for the lower class to be
healthy and long lived? What else can be expected than an excessive
mortality, an unbroken series of epidemics, a progressive deterioration
in the physique of the working population? Let us see how the facts
stand.

That the dwellings of the workers in the worst portions of the cities,
together with the other conditions of life of this class, engender
numerous diseases, is attested on all sides. The article already quoted
from the _Artisan_ asserts with perfect truth, that lung diseases must be
the inevitable consequence of such conditions, and that, indeed, cases of
this kind are disproportionately frequent in this class. That the bad
air of London,