Edwin Chadwick's Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain (1842) included witnesses' testimony about the miserable housing conditions of the British working poor throughout England and Scotland. Many connected poor hygiene and overcrowded housing to disease and immorality.

Dr. Scott Alison
"In many houses in and around Tranent, fowls roost on the rafters and on the tops of bedsteads. The effluvia in these houses are offensive, and must prove very unwholesome. It is scarcely necessary to say that these houses are very filthy. They swarm likewise with fleas. Dogs live in the interior of the lowest houses and must, of course be opposed to cleanliness. I have seen horses in two houses. . . . Several of the family were ill of typhus fever, and I remember the horse stood at the back of the bed."

Mr...