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twice as many deaths in proportion to numbers, among those who had been
sent out to be nursed as among those kept at home: the death-rate being
among those kept at home 1 in 9; among those sent out 1 in 4.4. This plan
is, then, unsatisfactory, as I feared last year that it would prove to be. The
death-rate of 1 in 4.4 is about the same as that for St. Giles South, of 1 in 4.3
births; but the object of such an institution as this is to save the child from
those destructive influences that cause its death in the malarious homes of
the poor: and it is quite evident that this end is not attained. None of the
children admitted belonged to St. Giles District.
The Sanitary Work of the Year.
The chief duty of the Sanitary Inspectors consists in maintaining the
cleanliness, ventilation, and wholesomeness of the houses of the poorer inhabitants.
This is, in every District, the most important part of the Inspectors'
duties, because disease originates in, and is sustained by, domestic
uncleanliness far more than by any external sources of pollution. This is
emphatically the case in St. Giles District. The Inspectors have provided
me with the following return of the sanitary work done during the year 1869.
It will be seen that they have made, together, 13,262 visits.