London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Fulham 1894

Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year ending December 31st, 1894

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61
1891, have come into force, both entailing many additional
duties on the Sanitary Authority, and moreover the population
of the parish has increased by some 20,000, and about 3,000
new houses have been erected. How Fulham compares with the
rest of the Metropolis, and with other towns, in its proportion
of Sanitary Inspectors will be seen by the following figures:—

To Each Inspector:

HousesPersons
Fulham5,000..37,000
London2,500...19,320
Fifteen large towns2,700...15,000

which shows clearly how wanting, in sanitary supervision, is
the parish, whether compared with the rest of London or
with other large towns. It is not, too, merely that the number
of Inspectors' is inadequate, but much of their time, which
might with advantage be devoted to outdoor work, is taken
up with clerical work, owing to the clerical staff being also
insufficient.
Allusion has already in this report been made to the
neglect of necessary work in connection with the Factory and
Workshop Act, the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, and other
matters, owing to the inadequate staff, and a strong additional
reason for increasing the number of Inspectors is the need for
a systematic house to house inspection of the parish, which
has been repeatedly urged upon the Vestry, as the mere
attention to complaints and inspection of houses where
infectious disease has occurred is quite inadequate to effect
any real improvement in the sanitary condition of the district.
In considering, too, the proportion of Inspectors to the
houses in the parish, it must not be forgotten that, as was
shown last year, there are, in Fulham, some 13,000 tenements
of less than 4 rooms, and that 2,000 of these are overcrowded,
being inhabited by over 2 persons to a room, while 4,500 are
inhabited by 2 persons to a room. Property of this sort
obviously requires most frequent and regular inspection; and,