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136
Verminous Houses.—When school children are found to be
verminous in school by the London County Council medical
officers in the course of their official inspections, the names and
addresses of such children are sent to the Public Health Department.
Their homes are then visited by the sanitary inspectors, and
notices for cleansing are served on the occupiers where the premises
are dirty and verminous. The parents are offered steam disinfection
for the verminous bedding and clothing, and sulphur fumigation
for the rooms.
The number of children notified in 1913 was 1,265. The
number of homes found clean on the first visit was 710, or 56
per cent. This confirms the view that, while the presence of head
lice or body lice discovered in school children may suggest the
presence of bugs in the home, the association is not a close one.
Of the rest, 213 tenements were dirty or verminous. One hundred
and fifty-four of the addresses were inaccurate. In 47 cases the
tenements were disinfected by the Borough Council.
Of the 218 dirty or verminous homes, the walls and ceilings of
184 were dirty and verminous. The bedding in 77 homes was
very much fouled, the bedding in 71 was very verminous. In
47 instances the bugs had invaded the wall picture frames. The
number of registered houses affected was 76 as against 137
unregistered houses.
It is not unreasonable to infer that this smaller incidence on
registered houses is to be attributed to the regular annual cleansing
and closer supervision which obtains in them.
Underground Rooms.—In eight instances underground rooms
were found to be separately occupied in contravention of the
provisions of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, Section 96.
Notices were served and the illegal occupations were discontinued.