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been exercised in this direction. A good deal of attention has in
recent years been devoted to this important subject in Battersea,
and while it has not been possible to repair the evil due to neglect
of effective supervision in the earlier years of its history, much
good work has been done owing to the activity displayed, especially
during the past 6 or 7 years. Systematic house-to-house inspection
is the only satisfactory way to carry out this sanitary supervision,
and it is a duty put upon Sanitary Authorities by Sec. I.
of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and by Sec. 30 of the
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890.
The total number of houses inspected in house-to-house inspection
during 1908 was 3,609. This is a considerable decrease
as compared with 1907, and is accounted for by the fact that a
very large part of the time of several of the Sanitary Inspectors
was taken up in connection with enquiries into cases of infectious
disease, which on a reference to the section of this Report dealing
with that subject will show, was, particularly in the case of scarlet
fever, very prevalent in Battersea during 1908. Moreover, the
type of the disease, being of a mild character, very many mild
unrecognised cases of the disease were continually coming to
light, and it was consequently found necessary to devote very
special attention to tracing them, and in this way prevent the
spread of infection to others.
Notwithstanding this drawback, however, the results of the
year's work in this direction compares favourably with past
years, and was about equal to the average number of houses
inspected in each year for the eight years 1900-08. The number
of houses inspected during each year since 1900 is as follows:—
1900 3,009
1901 3,116
1902 1,740
1903 2,670
1904 3,020
1905 4,503.
1906 3,609
1907 4,101
Average for 8 years 1900-1907 = 3,672
1908 3,609