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Innumerable statistics have been published with regard to the
evils of overcrowding, but it is scarcely necessary to quote these,
since it has now come to be universally recognised that the evils
do exist, and attention is consequently being concentrated on
how to get rid of them.
Of the diseases which are admittedly increased in prevalence
by overcrowding there are the infectious or zymotic diseases,
such as scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, and measles,
and many others. The spread of these is almost entirely due to
the close contact of inhabitants one with another, and it is quite
obvious that, if families or individuals have to live and sleep in
rooms occupied by sufferers from these diseases, the spread of
the latter is going to be very rapid. Of sub-acute diseases tuberbulosis
is the chief, and its spread is favoured by overcrowding
in two ways—firstly by the facilities for infection from one to
another, and secondly by the tendency to produce a lowered
standard of health by impure air. There are numerous other
diseases which might be classed as social diseases; in overcrowded
rooms young children do not get proper sleep, and consequently
become nervous and irritable; then there is the question of
morality of people of different sexes herding together in bedrooms
and living rooms—which leads to a lower standard of morals,
and owing to the lack of accommodation the members of the
family are driven to frequent public houses, and overcrowded
and unhealthy places of amusement.
It is also quite impossible for people living in overcrowded
circumstances to apply the elementary principles of sanitation
which they are taught, sometimes at great trouble and expense
and, therefore, the whole question of the education of the public
in hygiene is, to a certain extent, nullified.
As stated above the question of overcrowding of individual
houses and rooms is by far the most important in Bermondsey,
and this was brought out in a remarkable manner by the housing
census undertaken by the Council in the early part of this year.
According to this, there were 18,000 houses with a total of 87,000
rooms, 44,000 of which were used as bedrooms and 7,600 for living
and sleeping purposes combined. 35,000 was the figure given for