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These three houses are all common lodging houses, and it is
nearly always impossible to obtain any information about the
persons notified once they have left the house, so these figures shed
no light on the question of house infection. So far as Bermondsey
is concerned, therefore, there seems to be no evidence to show that
"Tuberculous houses" exist.
In pursuing this investigation the notification register has been
the starting point. The information contained in the register is,
however, at best, scanty, and has been supplemented from the
Dispensary records, and by visitation of the houses concerned.
Certain observations remain to be made, arising out of the enquiry.
(1) Lodging houses.
(2) Local distribution.
(3) Notification.
(1) It is apparent that common lodging houses shelter a large
number of cases of Tuberculosis. The probable explanation is that
the Tuberculous person is deprived of the power of earning to a very
large extent, and can find no better home. The congregation of
such persons in common lodging houses must expose the other
lodgers to considerable risk, and the Sanitary Authority ought to
have power to remove cases notified from common lodging houses,
and other similar places, e.g., Hostels, compulsorily to an institution
or hospital. As a matter of fact, these cases never remain for long
in a common lodging house after notification, but the point is that
they should be under control, and should not be free to wander from
one house to another shedding infection.
(2) The local distribution of the disease is interesting; 8,114
dwellings in Bermondsey are occupied by two or more families;
10,152 dwellings house one family only. This latter figure seems a
large one for a Borough like Bermondsey, but the figure includes
lodgers —except where boarding separately—as members of the
family, and also each flat, in a block of flats, is regarded as a separate
dwelling. If it were possible to exclude those houses having lodgers,
this figure would undoubtedly be smaller,