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15
adopted by the Board) have been circulated with every notice that has been
issued, warning landlords against permitting the practice of overcrowding.
The decision of the Magistrates that was obtained by the Board has been
adopted by other Magistrates in London and has been taken as a precedent
when proceedings for overcrowding have been taken in other parts of England.
In our own district we may probably trace the result of our precautions in the
circumstance that in 1864 our mortality from contagious disorders has not
exceeded, as it formerally has habitually done, the average of the metropolis.
A more favourable result than this we are not likely to obtain.
In the past session of Parliament, the railway bill was passed of which
mention was made in the last of these reports, and in the course of a short
time we may expect that its provisions will be put in force and a large number
of houses in the poorest part of North St. Giles's will be demolished. The
evidence given before Committees of the two Houses went to show that
these houses were crowded with poor people among whom a high mortality
prevailed, especially from the contagious class of complaints. By removing
these houses, therefore, the formation of a new street from Tottenham Court
Road to St. Martin's Lane would be productive of much sanitary advantage.
But it was impressed on the Committees and assented to by the promoters of
tbe railway bill that there was another very important sanitary aspect of the
case: that provision must be made for the lodgment of the poor who were
displaced, or else they would only migrate from their unhealthy homes into
other houses adjacent, which they would soon overcrowd to a worse degree
and make more unwholesome than ever. It is understood that facilities will
be given by the Railway Company for the cheap transit of labourers along
their line, and an inducement will thus be held out to the poor to seek, and
to capitalists to provide, in the suburbs better house accommodation than
could possibly be procured at the same rate in St. Giles's. It remains to help
the working classes to understand the advantage that they may thus gain for
themselves and their families in economy of health and in accession of bodily
and mental strength.
The three trades which are placed by law under the inspection of the
Board of Works, have been supervised as usual during the past year. The
butchers' slaughter.houses have been found, on the whole, in good condition;
but at the Michaelmas licensing day, one in Kingsgate Street that was formerly
licensed, had its license refused, and has since been altogether disused. The
cow.houses have created less nuisance of late, and last year the license to none
of them was opposed. The bakeries have been frequently looked after, and no
infringement of the regulations found that required proceedings.
No complaint of nuisances arising from other trades have been made
during the year, and it is not the custom of the sanitary officers to interfere
with trades, even if offensive, unless they are made the subject of formal
complaint.
Upon inspection of the Infants' Home, in Coram Street, advice was given
to the managers which it may be hoped will tend in the future to save the
lives of some of the infants Particularly it was insisted, if children were to
be taken from their mother's breasts for the advantage of the mothers, that
for the children's sake the utmost skill in nursing, with ceaseless medical
supervision, should at least be secured.
The sanitary operations of the past year have therefore been numerous
and incessant, but uneventful for record in a report. There are but narrow
limits within which the law gives powers to enforce sanitary requirements,
and within these limits there has been no want of action.