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It may be mentioned that 256 cases of infectious disease
occurred last year in families occupying whole houses; 11 in
families occupying 7 rooms in a house; 19 in families occupying
6 rooms; 56 in families occupying 5 rooms; 112 in
families occupying 4 rooms; 165 in families occupying 3 rooms;
268 cases in families occupying 2 rooms, and 101 in families
occupying a single room. With respect to the sufferers in the
families occupying a single room each, it may be mentioned,
that 42 of them had scarlet fever, 46 had diphtheria, 12 had
enteric fever, and 1 had small-pox.
My attention was directed afresh to this matter in
November, by representations made by Inspector Dawes,
superintendent of the disinfecting arrangements, of the
frequency with which he had to turn people into the streets to
enable him to disinfect their rooms. Mostly, as might be
expected, the difficulty arises in the cases where a whole family
occupy a single room. Inspector Dawes submitted a list of 14
cases, occurring within a period of two months, in which, as he
stated, he had had to " turn the people into the streets to
disinfect their rooms after removing the bedding." He and the
other Inspectors find it difficult in the circumstances to obtain
ordinary lodgings for the people, many of whom, being respectable,
object to go to a common lodging house, where, indeed,
they would be neither welcome, nor, in their infective condition,
desirable guests. The difficulty is got over sometimes, by
giving the people " permission to open the door of their room
late at night," the result being that the infected walls and
furniture arc exposed to the disinfecting gas for only a few
hours instead of the 24 hours usually deemed requisite. The
Inspector stated that "in many cases the doors have been burst
open as soon as he had left the premises," with the result that
practically no disinfection has taken place. Sometimes money
is given to the people to enable them to procure a lodging. In
one case it became necessary to close a house for two or three