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28
ENQUIRY INTO THE SANITARY CONDITION AND
ADMINISTRATION OF THE HAMLET OF MILE
END OLD TOWN BY DR. HAMER.
A letter was received from the London County Council on
June 7th last, stating they had deputed one of their Medical
Officer of Health to enquire into the Sanitary condition of the
Hamlet, and asking for the co-operation of the Sanitary Officers
of the Vestry; your Sanitary Committee directed a reply to be
sent, stating that the Sanitary Officers would be prepared to do
so. During the months of July and August the enquiry by Dr.
Hamer took place. I may here state at once that every facility
was given this Officer by the Sanitary Inspectors and myself to carry
on the investigation and in October last a Report was received
from the County Council detailing the result of such inspection.
It is prefaced by the Senior Medical Officer of Health of the
Council (Mr. Murphy), giving a resume of what led to such
enquiry ; and it appears to have been determined on solely by
reason of the Annual Report of the Jewish Board of Guardians
for the year 1893, which, as Mr. Murphy states, raised questions
as to the adequacy of the Sanitary Staff of this Hamlet.
" En passant I may state that the Report in question, viz. : the
Jewish Board, deals exclusively with a very small portion of our
district, not a twelfth of the Hamlet, and this twelfth inhabited
by Russian and Polish Jews, whose misfortune it is not to
have been brought up in a civilized manner, and whose habits
are filthy. It will therefore readily be understood, that the
condition of this part of the district could not bear as favourable
a comparison as that of other parts of the hamlet which is
principally occupied by our more fortunate brethern."
The first part of the Report of Dr. Hamer reiterates the very
interesting facts as set out in the Census Report and appears in
my Annual Report for 1892, as to population, tenement, dwellings,
etc., and also Mr. Booth's instructive conclusions from
his observations on the people and their modes of employment,
etc., in his great work published a few years ago.
In the second part of the Report, Dr. Hamer deals with
" Sanitary Circumstances," beginning first with the water supply,
he regards this as satisfactory ; next, taking inspections carried
out in 507 houses in Mile End (which inspections were made in
houses in various parts of the Hamlet most likely by reason of
their ancient structure and closely built courts, etc., to show sanitary
defects) he finds that in 32 per cent. of the premises visited
there were sanitary defects; a very small per centage indeed,
taking into account that many of these were broken closet seats,
defective rain water pipes, and other minor things more or less of a
trivial character, easily remedied, but which are common to every
district in London; and here I should like to quote from Dr.
Hamer's Report, he says : " In the Sanitary Committee Report
of the Jewish Board of Guardians for 1893, it is stated that the