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18
eighth part of the Whitechapel District population occupies dwellings of a
class termed "good." Among these persons the Death Rate during 1898
was only 18.4 per 1,000, and the Zymotic Death Rate only equalled 3 per
1,000.
Very many of the so-called Residents in the Whitechapel District have
their Homes in Registered Common Lodging-Houses, and in Salvation Army
and other Shelters, which are not yet Registered. These places being under
special supervision, they do not call for a large amount of attention from the
Sanitary Inspectors. Yet it is to these Institutions that Whitechapel is
indebted for the difference in Death Rate between the Metropolis, and
itself.
The state of domestic overcrowding is alluded to in Dr. Hamer's Report,
and here again Mr. Booth is quoted in respect to this question. Dr. Hamer,
however, during his visits of Inspection, found very few real cases of domestic
overcrowding, and that has been the experience of the Sanitary Officers.
No comment is needed on the figures from the Board of Trade Returns as
to the Immigration of Foreigners into the District. The matter has been
fully dealt with in the Reports of the Medical Officer of Health for the
Whitechapel District.
Dr. Hamer's Report proceeds to deal with a recital of the general
nuisances which he discovered in the course of his inspections. Little comment
is needed concerning them, they are more or less of a class common to
all Sanitary Districts in the Metropolis and which are readily remedied.
Bakehouses, Slaughter-houses Milk Shops, &c., are briefly discussed more
as a part of the Report by Dr. Hamer that in adverse criticism. It is worthy
of comment that credit is given to the staff for the manner in which the
work is performed, and for the many excellent improvements which are
manifest in the District. Especial comment is made concerning the House
Drainage improvements which are in evidence.
Reviewing the facts included in Dr. Hamer's Report, and the preface by
the Chief Medical Officer to the London County Council, your Committee is
at once confronted with the fact that when your Medical Officer was
appointed, two Sanitary Inspectors made up the Inspectorial Staff.
At the present time there are 4 Inspectors and an Office Clerk in the permanent
employ of the Board, and other assistance has been obtained when
necessary. At the present time an Assistant Inspector is employed. Aid is
also rendered for special work by the men who are ostensibly engaged for
disinfection work.
There is every reason to be satisfied with the improvements which have
taken place in the Sanitary state of the District. At the present time so
excellent a system of work is in practice that an enormous amount of work
is carried out day by day, and it is to be noticed that some other large
improvements have been projected, and will shortly be carried out within
the District.
Attention is directed in this Report to the great density of population
in the Residential portion of the District. Recently, in perhaps