Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/200

 Paul's, the southern part of St. James', including Broadmead and Lewin's Mead; that division of St. Augustine's which is situated between College Green and the southern base of Brandon Hill, on ground redeemed from Cannon's Marsh; Queen's Square, and its vicinity, which lie between the two rivers; are all built upon soil more or less argillaceous.

The buildings in Bristol, as it respects both their mode of construction and their relative situation, present no very marked difference from those of other large cities of a date equally antique. In consequence of the abundance of stone-quarries in the vicinity, even the poorest tenements, as far as the walls are concerned, afford good shelter from inclement seasons and atmospheric vicissitudes in general. Ventilation, however, is by no means so well provided for. The streets are, for the most part, narrow, and the houses of considerable height, and in those parts of the city inhabited more especially by the lower orders, we find courts and close alleys very frequent. As if the original object had been to make every inch of ground available, houses may be observed in some of these courts, with their faces opposed to each other, at the distance of five or six feet only, the entrance to the area being under an archway from some street, only a little less confined than the court itself. On looking at them, and considering the filthy, careless habits of the occupants, the medical observer is puzzled to imagine how any degree of health can be preserved,