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56 Annual Report of the London County Council, 1914.
indeed, in some respects afforded greater facility of action than the Council's Act. In London, therefore,
Section 122 of the Children Act has been mainly used, but it has been supplemented by the
powers obtained in 1907.
From this brief statement it will be seen that considerable attention has of recent years been
directed to this most important question of personal hygiene. The development of the Council's scheme
for securing the cleanliness of school children is fully discussed in Part II. (Education) of this report,
and it will only be necessary here to summarise the results of the action taken by the several borough
councils. With very few exceptions, all the London boroughs have now made provision for personal
cleansing, and most of the annual reports of medical officers of health contain information as to the action
taken. It is particularly satisfactory to note that the work which a few years ago was, as above stated,
only being undertaken in particular parts of London, is now becoming more widely extended, and
includes many of the poorest localities; in this connection reference may particularly be made to the
accounts given of cleausing work in such reports as those of Dr. Bryett for Shoreditch and Dr. Whitehouse
for Deptford. Dr. Warry (Hackney) prepared a special report during the year upon the influence
exerted in producing verminous conditions by the use of second-hand clothing ; his report was circulated
to sanitary authorities and several of the annual reports contain references to this question. The number
of cleansings at the several stations as shown in the following table has been obtained from the
annual reports:—
Number of
cleansings
during the
year 1914.
Metropolitan borough.
Adults.
Children.
Metropolitan borough.
Adults.
Children.
City of London.
Kensington
32
778
Battersea
1,050
1,602
Poplar
202
1,408
Bermondsey
38
2,162
St. Marylebone
7,934
1,866
Bethnal Green
20
—
St. Pancras
920
5,073
Camberwell
97
2,791
Southwark
93
2,662
Deptford
—
2,847
Stepney
1,445
7
Greenwich
5
229
Stoke Newington
1
374
Hackney
35
1,506
Wandsworth
32
—
Hampstead
4
235
Westminster, City of
68
368
Holborn
79
—
Woolwich
116
695
Islington
45
772
Cleansing of
adults.
As mentioned in the annual report lor 1910, the principle adopted by the council with regard to
the cleansing of adults from common lodging-houses was that the sanitary authorities should cleanse,
free of charge, any persons sent for that purpose to the cleansing station by the County Council from
common lodging-houses within their respective districts, and that a fee should be paid for cleansing all
persons sent from common lodging-houses not within the district where the cleansing was performed.
Agreements to this effect have been made with the borough councils of Bermondsey, Camberwell,
Hackney, Poplar, St. Marylebone, St. Pancras, and Woolwich.
From the information supplied by the Council's inspectors it appears that during the year 1914,
1,115 men and 59 women were, by reason of their beds having been found verminous, sent to have
their clothing cleansed. Of these numbers 1,015 men and 52 women were known to have been
cleansed, while 63 men and 7 women went away and could not be traced.
In nearly all the London boroughs, whether a cleansing station has been erected or not, considerable
effort is made to deal with verminous homes notified as the result of action by the school authority, and
many of the reports refer to the large amount of work involved in this connection. This additional visiting,
moreover, has had an influence for good far beyond its immediate aim, and many other defects have
been found and remedied as the result of the special inquiries made by the sanitary inspector or health
visitor. In addition, many thousands of articles have been purified and thousands of rooms cleansed
with great advantage to the community.
The details obtainable from the annual reports concerning the cleansing of rooms are shown
in the following table:—
Metropolitan borough.
Number of rooms or
premises cleansed.
Metropolitan borough.
Number of rooms or
premises cleansed.
City of London
_
Kensington
451 (rooms)
Battersea
51
Lambeth
935 (rooms)
Bermondsey
2,239
Lewisham
61
Bethnal Green
5,275
Paddington
366 (rooms)
Camberwell
110
Poplar
288 (rooms)
Chelsea
265
St. Marylebone
211 (rooms)
Deptford
99 (rooms)
St. Pancras
1,697 (rooms)
Finsbury
44
Shoreditch
395
Fulham
195 (rooms)
Southwark
*2,663 (rooms)
Greenwich
74
Stepney
1,829
Hackney
98
Stoke Newington
195
Hammersmith
69
Wandsworth
4,896
Hampstead
30 (rooms)
Westminster
257
Holborn
857
Woolwich
122 (rooms)
Islington
249
Cleansing of
verminous
rooms or
premises.
° Including 1,371 rooms cleansed by owners.