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During the course of the work, certain matters
have arisen which required special investigation. These
matters all have special reference to the sanitary state of
houses, and may be mentioned here: —
(1) Enquiries into the mortality of tenement
dwellings and the encroachment of industrial
buildings on dwelling houses.
(2) A large number of houses in the Borough
are sub-let, and the landings on the first doors
contains gas stoves, and are used as kitchens. In
many cases there is no light or ventilation on the
landing, the result being that the temperature of
the landing during cooking is very high, and the
atmosphere polluted by the fumes from the gas
stove and foul. The provision of adequate light
and venulation on the landing has been insisted
upon in the Borough for some years, but,
with the existing prevalence of sub-letting, we
feel that attention should again be drawn to the
matter.
(3) Dust Shoots. A request from the London
County Council for information on the
removal of house refuse from tenement dwellings
resulted in an investigation into the construction
of the inlets and receptacles of dust shoots. A
report was furnished, the results of which, we
believe, the London County Council has adopted.
(4) Verminous Dwellings. During the summer
an enormous number of rooms was found to
be infested with bugs. Various methods for their
extermination are used by occupiers and builders
in the Borough. These were investigated, and
although it is too early to speak definitely on the
result, yet observations tend to show that any
methods such as the use of strong carbolic mixture
of hydrochloric acid are useless, and the