Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 78-79. (Budapest, 1976)

TANULMÁNYOK - Mádai Lajos: Településhigiénés és demográfiai viszonyok a fővárosban az 1870-es években (angol nyelven)

The cultural level of the population of the capital was necessarily in close connection with the socio-economic conditions. Among the male population above ten 10.5% were illiterate in 1880, and 23.5% of the female population. The rate of the illiterate persons was the lowest in the City (4.7% male, and 11.4% female), and the highest in Óbuda (14.7% male, 29.7% female). There were many illiterate people also in ward no. I, and in all wards on the Pest side except for the City and Lipótváros. In spite of the situation of the poor, the capital occupied an outstanding position in the cultural life of the country. Out of the 715 writers 151 lived in Pest in 1870, and out of the 325 periodicals 149 were published there. HYGIENIC CONDITIONS IN THE CITY The unfavourable social and cultural conditions of life and work were made worse by the very backward hygienic conditions and unhealthy housing that proved very noxious to the health of the population. In the conscription of 1870 we can find 9,351 buildings the majority of which (77.5%) was one-storied only. Buildings with two stories were 14.5%, with three 5.9% and those with stories up to five were 2.1%. Every fifth house in the City was one-storied. This pattern was nearly the same in 1880 the rate of the one-story buildings being very high (71.4%). It is interesting to note that in those years the rate of the one-storied houses in Vienna was only 17%, in Paris 8%, in Brussels 7%, in Berlin 5%, and in Leipzig 3%. Housing conditions had been bad already before the unification of the capital. The density per room was 2.4 even in the wealthy Fig. 2. City Pest in 1870