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3
Supplement and Tables to complete the Annual Report, 1857.
driven as they are from richer districts into poor neighbourhoods, can scarcely help themselves; they lose
at last all healthy communication with richer or better neighbours, and all taste for pure air ar.d healthy
pursuits; they pack close, they descend a little, often a great deal, toward the lower animals; and so live
neither for this world nor the next.
In Table 4 will be seen a contracted classification of age and death-cause in every place in the
parish where more than one is recorded. In some future year T hope to give the level, the number of
houses, of rooms, of inhabitants, their circumstances and habits, and the superficial space of every one of
these places.
The fifth, or last Table, shows a very imperfect classification of the sanitary work done; it has
proved very uphill work, but the obstacles appear to be somewhat clearing away.* There are 7,000 houses
in this parish; 890 of these have been visited this year, and in 756 the work ordered has been carried
out; sometimes, I must say, in a most slovenly manner; an apparent compliance with your orders without
the least intention of producing an efficient work; in the poorer districts the most incompetent men
are employed to plaster over, patch over, whitewash or cover over, the evils ordered to be not covered but
amended; still a great amount of good work has been done; 130 unclean, dilapidated houses have been
cleansed and repaired; the inhabitants have been partially cleared from nine over-crowded houses; eleven
only are so recorded, not that this represents all, for over-crowding is the normal stale in our poorer
districts; small houses of four rooms are usually inhabited by three or four families, and by eight to
sixteen or even twenty-four persons. 1 have this week seen two houses infested with the small-pox; in
one are three families and fourteen persons occupying four rooms; in the other eight, or rather six rooms,
there are eighteen persons. One of the cases noted in the Table had thirty-three persons in eight
rooms; and another, 133 inhabitants in eight houses; 407 drains have been newly made or amended;
327 cesspools have been cleansed or abolished; 133 water-closets have been rendered fit for use; 167
yards have been more or less re-paved; this matter requires serious consideration, as the yards are
generally in a very bad condition; the small ones ought to be completely paved; the larger, at least near
the house and around the sinks; the neglected sloppy condition of these places is often indescribable, and
a filthy yard generally involves a filthy house, and unclean habits. The removal of dust and refuse is, no
doubt, belter effected than it was; but the work admits of an almost perfect organization; this parish, with
its thousands of refuse heaps, requires the best management to keep the air untainted from this cause
alone. Notices have been given to the police in some thirty cases of dangerous structures; no doubt life
is saved this way, as many are old, perishing, and ready to fall, without much warning; twice have I, as
parish surgeon, attended the sick in houses that have fallen within a week of my visit. In conclusion,
it must be clear that all this work cannot have been effected without a great and good result. I know
that we are on the right track, and am glad to learn that the good intentions of your officers, and the actual
good done by them under your sanction, have met with the expressed approbation of many of the members
of this vestry. I might multiply instances in proof of the good done, let one or two suffice; in Martin-street
you will recollect my report of many cases of fever; twelve in three houses, and some deaths; and these
houses had previously been infested with fever so intense, that visitors took the disease; these houses were
cleansed, connected by pipe drains with sewer, and the old rotten brick drains that ran under the rooms
were removed; this work was done two years ago, and done well; no fever, and very little illness, has
appeared since. May Pole Alley, a cul-de-sac with its 23 houses and 180 people, was cnce a nest of the
most infectious diseases. I attended, as parish surgeon, some ten cases of typhus there, some of them
malignant enough to destroy life in forty-eight hours; with great trouble this court has been cleansed
and amended, and although not what it should be, it is very much more healthy, as the district surgeon
has more than once informed me; the diseases there are neither so numerous nor so intense.
(Signed) WILLIAM RENDLE.
* I do not now (June, 1858) feel in quite so hopeful a spirit as when 1 penned the above paragraph.