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originally attached to the tenements as lumber rooms, or as odd
rooms for storage purposes. They were not built for occupation
as living rooms or as sleeping rooms.
In some parts of the Borough it is found that tenements which
originally contained three rooms have been in recent years converted
into three one-roomed tenements. With this degradation
of the tenement, and its attendant abolition of home isolation and
family seclusion, the old-time lumber room comes to be used as
a living room and sleeping room.
It is extremely important that every room used for human
habitation should have a fireplace or means of communication with
the outer air in addition to the window frame.
Thirty-three bedrooms had dirty walls and ceilings, 13 were
damp. In 18 instances the walls and bedding were verminous.
In 14 bedrooms the bedding was fouled with the patient's sputum,
in 8 the bedroom utensils were contaminated, in another 8 the
patients had been spitting broadcast and had bespattered the
floors and walls. In 10 homes the bedding was excessively filthy,
grimy, and in parts almost caked with dirt and mucus.
The conditions thus found bespeak wanton carelessness, and
show a callous indifference on the part of the patients concerned
to the health and welfare of their families.
The Kitchens.—In 255 instances, or 58 per cent. of the whole
number of cases the kitchen was being used as a living room
and a sleeping room.
This is one index of poverty, and shows the difficulties of
accommodation and the facilities for infection which accrue in
these poor households.
Sometimes the patient himself occupies the kitchen by day and
night.
The conditions found in the kitchens were as follows:—Forty
had dirty walls and ceilings, 16 were verminous, 17 were damp,
and in 15 houses the kitchen and feeding utensils were extremely
dirty.