2. To obtain information from the Boards of Guardians of districts in which these diseases appear to have prevailed to a considerable extent, and where the guardians have applied to municipal or other authorities for the removal of circumstances promoting the prevalence of such diseases.
3. In large towns, to request some physician,[1] or general practitioner of eminent reputation, to prepare a report (founded upon data obtained from the various dispensaries, infirmaries, fever hospitals, and other similar public establishments) respecting the circumstances promoting the prevalence of contagious and infectious diseases in such large towns.
The Commissioners will be glad to receive from you the name of any physician or general practitioner of sufficient eminence to obtain the requisite data, and who will be willing to furnish them with such a report in each of the towns in your district named in the margin.
4. If the means already indicated should prove insufficient, to obtain a report from yourself founded on personal examination, on spots where, from the returns or from other information, such examination by yourself or the medical officer of the district may appear necessary.
Some of the chief considerations bearing upon the subject are set forth in the reports referred to in the resolution of the House of Lords, and if within your district there were any Boards of Health appointed during the prevalence of the cholera, it is probable that their reports founded on an examination of the condition of those classes amongst whom the prevalence of that disease was apprehended may furnish you with useful information.
The Commissioners wish further to observe that the state of the dwellings occupied by the labouring classes exercises an important influence upon their health, and the nature and frequency of the diseases to which they are subject, as well as indirectly upon the moral state of themselves and their families.
The Commissioners therefore request you to investigate the state of the dwellings of the labouring classes in your district, both in towns and in the country, with reference to the following observations,—
It will be desirable generally, after informing yourself of the various descriptions of cottage tenements in your district and the nature of the accommodation or comforts which they contain, to observe—