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palaces designed by philanthropists, with appliances which do not
often come within the means of the lower middle class, but cheap
wholesome and suitable places-The authorities would display great
economic wisdom in getting and using public money at per cent for
this purpose".
Smallpox was a relatively common disease; there were 32 deaths
in St. Lukes from it in 1864 During a serious epidemic in 1871 a
temporary hospital was opened and an ambulance provided-at a cost of
£59-to remove the sick from home so as to avoid the employment of
street cabs. Notices were also posted throughout the parish urging
the importance of vaccination. There was also a serious outbreak of
Fever in St. Mark's and the City of London Lying In Hospital which led
to the use of disinfectants and isolation of patients as a method of
checking the spread and then to a demand for information to be given
to the health department as soon as an infectious disease was discovered.
The Sanitary Act of 1866 provided for disinfection of houses
and the construction of a place for the disinfection of materials
instead of merely burning them and compensating the owners.
Dr. Pavey held strong views about infectious diseases and said
"there can scarcely be a greater crime than that of secretly infecting
a fellow creature with a mortal disease, it differs only from that of
secret poisoning in being done more frequently and without fear of
punishment".
In 1873 the Prevention of Adulteration of Food, Drink & Drugs Act
came into force in St. Lukes and the first conviction in London was
obtained here. The magistrate fined a man £10 and costs for selling
adulterated tea. Two other cases fell through because of a loophole
in the law which allowed a married woman to sell adulterated food with
impunity unless legal proof of the marriage could be provided a matter
of some difficulty and expense in those days. In the same year
a man was summonsed at Clerkenwell Police Court for selling putrid
rabbits in Levpr Street and fined £5 or 2 months imprisonment. In
1868 there had been inspections of 53 bakehouses 34 slaughterhouses
and 15 cow sheds and 44 hampers of plaice, 4 trunks of soles. 2 bushels
of periwinkles and 2 cwt. Ostend rabbits were among the articles which
had been condemned as unfit for consumption by human beings.
The improvement in housing and decrease in population, along with
a better understanding of the infectivity of certain diseases helped
to reduce the wastage of human life. As the years went by measures
such as the Public Health (London) Act 1891, Notification of Births
Act, 1907, appointment of Health Visitors and beginning of the Child
Welfare Movement, Notification of Tuberculosis of the Lungs 1908. and
Housing Act, 1935 helped to prepare the ground for the birth of the
Welfare State.