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Drury Lane and Dudley Street are allied to the 1st section, whilst New
Compton Street approaches the 2nd. Any one familiar with our population
will readily recognise the distinctions I have made. Zymotic diseases
were not, perhaps, actually fewer in the 1st section than in the 3rd; hut
pulmonary diseases were, undoubtedly, much more numerous, and it is to
these that our excess of mortality is mainly due.
The Rate of Mortality in the "Society's" Lodging-houses.
54. I have been favoured by Mr. Payne, the Secretary to tho Society
for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, with a tabular statement
of the mortality in the several buildings under his superintendance, and
as it is of considerable importance in illustrating the present subject, I
re-produce it here, so far as it refers to St. Giles district.
55. A few corrections are required in the foregoing Table. There were,
for example, 4 deaths in the “Workhouse (3 adults and 1 child) of persons who
had previously lived in Wild Court, which gives an aggregate of 7 deaths of
adults and 6 of children; total 13. One adult also died in the Workhouse
who should be returned for Clark's Buildings, making 3 adults and 2 children ;
total 5.
56. An analysis of this Table shows that there is a great difference in
the death-rate in the several buildings. In the Model House in Streatham
Street, with a population of 217, there has been but one death in the year,
or a rate of 4.6 per 1,000; but in Wild Court, with a population of 356, there
have been 13 deaths either occurring in it, or referable to it, or a rate of 36.5
per 1,000, whilst in Clark's Biddings, with a population of 263, there have
been 5 deaths, or a rate of 18.2 per 1,000.
57. Now, the Streatham Street block was erected expressly as a Model
House, and is inhabited by a sober and orderly class of people, and we see
the advantage of these circumstances in a standard of health fulness extraordinarily
high. In Clark's Buildings, which are occupied by respectable
working people, composed of English and Irish in about equal proportions,
the mortality was much lower than the average mortality of London, and
about equal to the healthiest rural districts. These buildings are in a close
neighbourhood, and are adaptations of old houses of a better sort than usual,
and they are provided with the necessary appurtenances for health and
cleanliness. They are kept fairly clean, and we witness accordingly, a
satisfactory result.
58. So favourable an opinion cannot be expressed of Wild Court. The
causes are obvious upon inspection. The houses were too old for successful