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than this by 5, in some less by ½. If this is the effect which crowded apartments produce
upon men in the prime of life, robust in frame, and previously free from disease,
what operation must they exert upon those who are less healthy, and upon the delicate
frames of children, and especially how fatally they must guide the course of
disease ? Can you calculate, then, the sickness and permature death that must be
dealt out among our population, where such extreme instances of over cro.vding, as
I have instanced, are to be met with? I have felt it my duty to advise the Sanitary
Committee to put the powers it is entrusted with into operation, in every instance
where the capacity of the apartments inspected was found below 300 cubic feet per
head. The difficulty in assuming a higher standard is the strongest argument I can
adduce in recommending you to support, by your influence, any measure that may
be proposed for extending the operation of the law as it relates to this subject. The
advantages which have arisen from the building of well-constructed lodginghouses
for the labouring classes cannot be denied. I should rejoice to see them in
Islington, but they fail to benefit the lowest class of poor, who can only be reached
by a law which would limit the population permitted to the tenements they
inhabit.
23. The removal of noxious accumulations of various kinds, under the superintendence
of the Inspectors of Nuisances, is that which is constantly going on, and
need only be mentioned as a portion of the work they have done. The extension
of the sewerage of the parish, than which no sanitary proceeding is more important,
will be reported to you by your surveyor.
24. I have merely to record the addition, in obedience to.your orders, of two additional
ambulances for the conveyance of the sick poor to the hospital—one for
fever patients and the other for persons suffering from non-infectious diseases. One
thousand copies of my "Directions for Preventing the Spread of Infectious Diseases"
have also been distributed. I should desire your permission for a re-issue, from
time to time, as occasion for it may become apparent.
25. No alteration has at present been made in the condition of the vaults beneath
the parish church. They have been visited by Mr. Grainger, by direction of the
Home Secretary. He expressed himself satisfied as to the desirableness of some such
amendment in their condition as that proposed in my last Report; but as yet no other
result has followed his visit. Another Government Inspector, Mr. Holland, has
visited, during the year, the desecrated burial ground in Church Street. Happily
the disinterments, which have been the occasion of so much scandal and nuisance,
have been put a stop to, under the provisions of a recent Act of Parliament. As I
write, also, an Order in Council has appeared, directing the levelling and planting of
the ground, and prohibiting any further disturbance of the surface It is to be
hoped that this subject which, more than once, has been brought under the notice of
the Home Secretary, with the sanction of the Sanitary Committee, may now be considered
as disposed of.
SLAUGHTER HOUSES.
26. Prior to the licensing day for slaughter houses, the inspectors visited all those
respecting which notice was given to the Vestry of an intention to apply for a licence.
Of these there were 100, viz.: 49 in the West Sub-district and 51 in the East. As
was to be expected from the alterations and improvements effected in 1856, in drainage
and paving, &c., there was little to amend in the condition of those which were
licensed the previous year. The magistrates took a very liberal view of the objections
submitted to them, and licensed all but five.
COW HOUSES.
27. In the month of May I drew up for the Sanitary Committee by their direction,
a "Report upon the general condition of the Cow-houses in the parish," some of