View report page

10
ference with them. I believe that if all kitchens,
instead of being made separate tenements, were fitted
up for the use of all the inhabitants of a house for
washing and other domestic purposes, the loss of the
rent of the kitchen would be compensated by a better
class of tenants. The working classes are quite willing
to make some sacrifice for cleanliness and comfort, and
the habits of the dirtiest and most negligent are even
made worse by having the choice of living in underground
dwellings, many of which are unfit for human
habitation, although in accordance with the clauses of
the Metropolitan Management Act relating to kitchens.
In former reports I have shewn that the proportion
of deaths in children under five is greater than it ought
to be. It is manifestly our duty to inquire whether
this depends on local or more general causes, and
whether it cannot be remedied. This great mortality
among children occurs in all large towns, and always
in the worst part of such towns. While a man, his
wife, and three, four, even six children live in a single
room containing space enough for only two persons—
when you remember that this small place is the bedroom,
the kitchen, and washhouse of the family, but
also the water-closet—at least for the children—when
we reflect what a woman with four or six children has
to do, we can hardly be surprised that slops, offal, and
worse matter remain in the room until the air is
almost pestilential. Nor can we be surprised that
when one of the children fall sick with measles, that a
low kind of fever with inflamed lungs occurs, and that
death ensues. I could point out several such cases in
our small district within the last twelve months.
But the evil does not rest here. The health of the
mother becomes impaired, and she, too, falls a victim
to the conditions under which we allow our people to
live in all our large towns. The husband being called