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In Javen's Buildings, King Street, there are 20 tenements,
occupied by 102 persons. Only one or two of these houses
are fairly clean, and fully half of them (viz. —numbers 3, 4,
5, 6, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20) are in a dirty and unsanitary
condition. In some of these houses the ceilings were whitewashed
five months ago, and the walls have been left dirty
and unpapered. Broken panes in the windows abound. The
stairs and passages are dirty. There are four w.c.'s, each of
which is a double one. The doors have no fastenings.
On the 5th inst. I attended a conference of a Committee of
the London County Council and of representatives of the
Metropolitan Vestries on the proceedings to be taken under
the Housing of the Poor Act, 1890. It was resolved that the
Medical Officer of the County Council should convene a
meeting of the Medical Officers of Health to endeavour to
arrive at some common understanding as to what conditions
rendered a house unfit for human habitation, and to report
thereon to a future meeting of the Committee and Delegates.
January 5th, 1891.
During the three weeks that ended on the 27th day of
December, 144 births and 122 deaths were registered in the
parish. These numbers indicate an annual birth-rate of 27.6,
and an annual rate of mortality of 22.5 per thousand of the
estimated population. The corresponding death-rate in
London was 24.5. The low birth-rate is probably due to
delayed registration, and the higher death-rate is attributable
to cold and foggy weather.
The number of deaths from the chief diseases of the
zymotic class was 12, viz.—from measles 1, diphtheria 1,
whooping cough 7, enteric fever 2, and diarrhoea 1.
Diseases of the respiratory organs caused 46 deaths, viz.—
bronchitis 27, pneumonia 14, laryngitis 3, and pulmonary
congestion 2.
In the class of tubercular diseases there were 10 deaths
from phthisis, 3 from meningitis, 2 from tabes mesenterica,
and 2 from tuberculosis.
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