30 feet long, so that purification by the direct action of the air
and solar light is in the great majority of these cases perfectly
impracticable. Upwards of 7000 houses are erected _back to back and
side to side_, and are of course by this injurious arrangement
deprived of the means of adequate ventilation and decent privacy."

Dr. Laycock says of York,

"From these inquiries it appears that in the parish of St. Dennis, in
which strict accuracy was observed, from 8 to 11 persons slept in one
room in 4.5 per cent. of the families resident there; in 7.5 per
cent. from 6 to 8 persons slept in one room; of the total 2195
families visited by the district visitors, 26 per cent. had one room
only for all purposes."

The Rev. Mr. Clay gives an account of an examination of a part of
Preston,

"The streets, courts, and yards examined contain about 422 dwellings,
inhabited at the time of the inquiry by 2400 persons sleeping in 852
beds, i.e. an average of 5.68 inhabitants to each house, and 2.8
persons to each bed.

"In 84 cases 4 persons slept in the same bed.
,, 28 ,, 5
,, 13 ,, 6
,, 3 ,, 7
,, 1 ,, 8

"And, in addition, a family of 8 on bed stocks covered with a little
straw."

The results of statistical investigations, with respect to the duration
of life, are in unison with the inferences that we should naturally make
from the facts before us. Dr. Laycock shows us that in York, in the best
drained parishes, where the population to the square rood is 27, and the
mean altitude above the sea in feet is 50, the mean age at death is
35.32; in intermediate parishes, where the population is denser and the
altitude less, the mean age at death is 27.29; in the worst drained,
worst ventilated, and lowest situated parishes, the mean age at death is
22.57. He mentions a fact well worth noticing, that the cholera in 1832
broke out in the court called "the Hagworm's nest," which is in the same
spot where the pestilences of 1551 and 1604 had dwelt. Surely, in these
last two hundred years, we might have drained and ventilated a locality
which experience had shown to be so attractive to epidemics. The Rev.
Mr. Clay has furnished a table, subjoined in the Appendix, showing the
progressive diminution of vitality in the respective classes of gentry,
tradesmen, and operatives, at Preston. Dr. Duncan says respecting the
mortality of Liverpool,