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159
officers in the course of their official inspections, the names and
addresses of such children are sent to the Public Health Department.
Their homes are then visited by the sanitary inspectors, and
notices for cleansing are served on the occupiers where the premises
are dirty and verminous. The parents are offered steam disinfection
for the verminous bedding and clothing, and sulphur fumigation
for the rooms.
The number of children notified in 1912 was 597. The
number of homes found clean on the first visit was 391, or 65
per cent. This confirms the view that, while the presence of head
lice or body lice discovered in school children may suggest the
presence of bugs in the home, the association is not a close one.
Of the rest, 160 tenements were dirty or verminous. Forty-six of
the addresses were inaccurate, and in 26 instances the correct
addresses could not be obtained. In 38 cases the tenements were
disinfected by the Borough Council.
Of the 160 dirty or verminous homes, the walls and ceilings of
76 were dirty; the walls and ceilings of 76 were verminous. The
bedding in 9 homes was very much fouled, the bedding in 76 was
very verminous. In 42 instances the bugs had invaded the
wall picture frames. The number of registered houses affected
was 60 as against 100 unregistered houses.
It is not unreasonable to infer that this smaller incidence on
registered houses is to be attributed to the regular annual cleansing
and closer supervision which obtains in them.
Underground Rooms.—In twenty-four instances underground
rooms were found to be separately occupied in contravention of the
provisions of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, Section 96.
Notices were served and the illegal occupations were discontinued
Stable Dwellings.—The stable dwellings remaining in the
Borough are given in the following list. They are all frequently
inspected,