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SPEECH: SANITARY REFORM. LONDON, MAY 10, 1851.
[The members and friends of the Metropolitan Sanitary Association
dined together on the above evening at Gore House, Kensington. The
Earl of Carlisle occupied the chair. Mr. Charles Dickens was
present, and in proposing "The Board of Health," made the following
speech:-]
There are very few words for me to say upon the needfulness of
sanitary reform, or the consequent usefulness of the Board of
Health. That no man can estimate the amount of mischief grown in
dirt,--that no man can say the evil stops here or stops there,
either in its moral or physical effects, or can deny that it begins
in the cradle and is not at rest in the miserable grave, is as
certain as it is that the air from Gin Lane will be carried by an
easterly wind into Mayfair, or that the furious pestilence raging
in St. Giles's no mortal list of lady patronesses can keep out of
Almack's. Fifteen years ago some of the valuable reports of Mr.
Chadwick and Dr. Southwood Smith, strengthening and much enlarging
my knowledge, made me earnest in this cause in my own sphere; and I
can honestly declare that the use I have since that time made of my
eyes and nose have only strengthened the conviction that certain
sanitary reforms must precede all other social remedies, and that
neither education nor religion can do anything useful until the way
has been paved for their ministrations by cleanliness and decency.
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