Welsh Journals

Vetch Field, at a time when housing had not begun to spread across the Sandfields. Williams was curator of the entomology in 1845 and in 1848 helped to catalogue the library. George Gwyn Bird, M.D., was visiting surgeon to the Infirmary from 1827. He owned a solid seafront house at Mumbles in 1844 together with thirteen acres of land around Oystermouth Castle. He became president of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association-a prototype B.M.A. — in 1853. An institution member since 1836, he gave a course of lectures on anatomy in 1843. As for the G.P.'s, Gutch practiced in the Morriston area and Nicol was joint secretary with Logan from 1846, and did most of the work, also acting as curator of "mineralology" (sic). W.H. Michael, a surgeon, was responsible for the R.I.S.W. laboratory from May, 1845-he became the town's first M.O.H. in 1853. Henry Wigglesworth, who introduced the use of anaesthetics into Swansea in about 1835, was a council member, and with Williams, Bird and Gutch published medical papers and pamphlets. As to the law, John Gwyn Jeffreys was a solicitor, though a superior one. Richard White Beer (or Beor) lived at 2 Longland place (near today's Y.M.C.A.) and had offices in St. Mary street; he was a member as early as 1835. Bankers included Robert Eaton of "Brynymor", a council member from 1848, and W.M. Stroud and John Matthew Voss, successive managers of the Glamorganshire bank in High street. George Rolls was joint owner of the brewery in Singleton street. John Francis (George's father) was a High street carriage builder. Sampson Dawe and Charles Wilson, the former of 5 Castle street, the latter of Wind street and Brunswick place were no more than "Chemists and druggists", becoming involved in 1836 and 1846 respectively. There were clergymen like Thomas Dodd, a member since 1836, who joined the council in 1845. He had links with Parc Ie Breos in 1836, but became minister of the Countess of Huntingdon's chapel, next door to the Institution, and lived in Nelson place or terrace. G.B. Brock, curator of Art and Antiquities in 1837, we have met­his ministry in High street lasted from 1836 until 1854. Richard Aubrey, W.H. Michael and his uncle M.J. Michael, a corn merchant, were all of his flock. Father Charles Kavanagh, who helped to catalogue the library in 1848, was the widely respected priest to Swansea's Roman Catholics, 1839-1856. He lived in St. David's place, near the church he inaugurated in 1847, and close enough to be regular attender at committee meetings. How responsive were these men to Swanea's social problems? In those years a rapidly growing population was being crammed into the old town and the Greenhill area to the north, without any real attempt at proper sanitation measures or water supply-152 townspeople died in a cholera outbreak in 1849. De la Beche was commissioned to write part of a Royal Commission report on the "Health of Towns" published in 1845. His awareness that "slops, soap-suds, dishwater, urine, ordure, etc., are thrown out of the doors of cottages." for example, seems quite direct. George Gwyn Bird wrote "Observations on the Subject of Cholera" in 1849-he concluded that the crucial need was "the means for enabling the inhabitants. to keep their courts and alleys clean, such as privies, free supply of water, etc