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for consumption. Indeed, there is the best reason to believe that
in Finsbury the common lodging-houses are being extensively
used by tramps who stay there one night only for the purpose of
obtaining a Finsbury "settlement" and admission to the infirmary
at Highgate.
This, of course, tends to raise the prevalence of phthisis in
Finsbury and also to keep up the death rate from the disease.
On the general question, that this is not a theoretical consideration,
but is common to most lodging-houses and is even recognised
by tramps themselves, the following extract is taken from a
book published this year and written by a man who has spent
many years in common lodging-houses:—
"It is a pathetic sight to see men dying in a lodging-house,
fighting against death day after day.
"The few healthy men that are present are quite indifferent to
life and do not care if their health is impaired through breathing
in the same room as a dozen consumptives. These healthy men
are so thoughtless of themselves that they offer their dying
comrades saucers of tea, after which they drink with their own
lips perhaps on the same places as their unfortunate fellows
used. I well remember one man who was in a terrible condition
for the last three months before he was carried to the hospital.
He was a man of about middle age, and his face was very white,
and, all day long he was coughing and spitting in the kitchen
with only enough strength in his body to take him to bed. . . .
I began at last to look upon these consumptives as murderers,
who, by their stubbornness in not going to the hospital were
killing me and others with their breath."
Eleven cases of consumption admitted to the Infirmary or
Workhouse from common lodging-houses died not long after their
admission. Tramps, as a rule, struggle and fight until they can
hardly move before they will enter a hospital or infirmary for the
first time. Many of them are under the imoression that medical
science, when it has to do with the friendless, homeless, and
*"Beggars " by W. H. Davies. 1909.