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loads, to say nothing of street repairing machines and
building operations. There are factories containing
powerful machinery often worked until late in the
evening. The housing shortage frequently compels
families to live in close proximity to industrial
buildings; and where loud processes are carried on at
all hours of the night as well as during the day, life
almost becomes intolerable. It is useless for the
doctors and health visitors at the welfare centres to
advise good habits of sleep, when the means of
practising such habits is denied the parents. This
barrage on our complex nervous system is not conducive
to good health and temper and ought to be
brought under stringent public restriction. The
people who have become accustomed to turn to the
Public Health Department for assistance in dealing
with their health problems cannot understand our
helplessness in the face of an obvious menace to health,
and it is to be hoped that some definite action will be
taken very soon to deal with the matter.
RATS AND MICE (DESTRUCTION) ACT, 1919.
No formal notices were served under the Act
during the year. A number of complaints as to rat
infestation have been investigated and dealt with and
occupiers of premises have been advised in the matter.
Poor occupiers have been assisted by the supply of rat
poison, 141 tins of treated biscuits and 2 bottles of
Squill being issued in this way, while 455 tins of biscuits
were used as baits in the sewers in the quarterly
campaigns described later.
The planned measures for rat destruction for one
week every three months in co-operation with the
Medical Officers of Health and Borough Engineers of
Hackney, Poplar, Shoreditch and Stepney, have been
continued during the year. So far as it is possible to
estimate the result in figures, the following statistics
concerning Bethnal Green illustrate it :
Baits laid (in 303 manholes) 17,502
Baits taken 15,971
Percentage of baits taken 91