View report page

74
four, 6 had had five addresses, and one patient had lived in
eight houses during the time of his illness. It is deplorable that
these poor people move from one house to another-infecting one
after the other. These removals are however, often due to
poverty-the rent falls behind, and the sick tenant is either
evicted or escapes clandestinely.
Very many of the cases were never traced-they had moved to
unknown addresses elsewhere and were now, probably, infecting
a new house and new neighbours, free from supervision and
subject to no restraint.
Many of these people are said to be regular frequenters of
common lodging houses.
Others slept at an address in the Borough for one or two nights
with relatives, or as lodgers, and had disappeared before the
inspector had time to call upon them.
One patient slept, when he had the means, in a Finsbury
common lodging house, at other times on the Thames Embankment.
One, a boy of 11 years, had no home and had been sleeping in
the streets of Finsbury for some weeks.
No. of Rooms occupied.—In 217 cases, the number of
available rooms were as follows:—91 patients and their families
lived and slept in one room, 88 in 2 rooms, 23 in 3 rooms, 10 in 4
rooms, 4 in 5 rooms, and one luxuriated in the possession of 7
rooms.
It is obvious that when a family includes a consumptive and
lives and sleeps in one or at most two rooms, that practicable
measures for securing the protection of the rest of the family are
impossible. And unfortunately these are the circumstances under
which 82 per cent, of the Finsbury cases of consumption are
found, on the above figures. And these are th circumstances
which make the spread of the disease easy and its progress difficult
to prevent.