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62
Annual Report of the London County Council, 1911.
common lodging-houses within their respective districts, and that a fee should be paid for cleansing all
persons sent from common lodging-houses not within the district where the cleansing was performed.
In the latter half of 1911 agreements to this effect were made with the borough councils of Bermondsey,
Camberwell, Hackney, Poplar, St. Marylebone, St. Pancras and Woolwich. In Finsbury, Holborn,
and Kensington lodgers were cleansed by arrangement with the Guardians, the borough council paying
a capitation fee for each person cleansed. As has already been mentioned, persons were cleansed in other
boroughs, but there was no agreement with the County Council for the special treatment of common
lodging-house inmates.
From the information supplied by the Council's inspectors it appears that during the year 1911
some 345 men and 5 women were sent to have their persons and clothing cleansed by reason of their
beds being found to be verminous. Of these numbers, 141 men and 1 woman returned to the common
lodging-house in a clean condition, 2 men returned still verminous, and 181 men and 4 women went
away and were not again traced. 21 men were expelled by the keepers for declining to go to the
cleansing station.

It is difficult to account for the different results at the St. Ann's, Westminster, and Charlesstreet,
Holborn, shelters. Compulsion appears to be much more necessary in one place than the other,
but possibly there is less selection of lodgers at the foimer place.
The fact that the Salvation Army cleanses such a large number of men during the year shows the
need for this wrork and suggests that the 345 men sent from other common lodging-houses form a very
small proportion of the men needing treatment, though, of course, here again the question of class needs
to be taken into consideration. It is evident, however, from the material available that the objection
to cleansing is being slowly overcome, and there are many instances of men who on the first occasion
have been cleansed only as the result of a 24 hours' notice, have afterwards when necessary gone to
the station voluntarily.
Vermin Inquiry.
During the years 1909, 1910. and 1911, an attempt was made to obtain information relative
to the seasonal prevalence of three kinds or vermin (fleas, lice, and bugs). Some remarks on this
subject were made in a report on "Flies and Vermin" (which appeared as an appendix to the Annual
Report of 1909) and these were based on observations made in that year. The figures for the two
later years have since become available and the opportunity is now taken, therefore, to compare the
results obtained in the several years. Dealing in the first place with the curves for lice for the three
years it will be seen that in each instance the figures show that lice were more prevalent in the winter
months. It is an interesting fact that the percentage of beds found to be infested was distinctly higher
in 1909 than in 1910, and again in 1910 than in 1911. The fact that the attention of keepers and
deputies of common lodging houses was especially directed in 1909 to the need of dealing with this
question was no doubt largely responsible for the lessened prevalence of lice observed in the two later
years. Too much stress must not, however, be laid on small variations in the figures in the three years,
inasmuch as the percentages may not be strictly comparable. In the first year inquiry was more
specially directed to the presence of lice, whilst in the two later years fleas were made the principal subject
of observation. It is possible, therefore, that there may have been some slight differences in the
standards applied by the inspectors in the two later years, as compared with 1909. Thus in 1909 the
standard for fleas is perhaps lower than in 1910 and 1911, and in the two latter years the standard for
lice may be somewhat lower than in 1909. Subject to some qualification in this sense the figures may
be accepted.
If reference is made to Diagram X in this report it will be seen that there is a tendency for fleas
to show a late summer and autumnal prevalence. In 1909 the curve for buys showed correspondence
with the curve for fleas, but in the two later years this correspondence is less marked. In
these two years the curve for bugs was raised during the whole of the summer, in contrast to the seasonal
curve for lice which shows a rise during the winter months. Though the standard adopted during 1909
in determining the prevalence of the three kinds of vermin was not, as already stated, quite the same