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through, any great influx of paupers from this parish. Active sanitary measures
and precautions were taken by the Vestry and its Officers, and the Guardians
of the Poor empowered their Officers to grant the best of all preventives of
the disease, good nourishment, wherever necessary. As a consequence, since
the commencement of the current year very few cases of Relapsing Fever
have been met with in St. Pancras.
This Fever was entirely confined in this parish to the pauper population
of the Southern part of the parish. The existence of 58 cases of the disease
was ascertained.
REGISTERED COMMON LODGING-HOUSES.
The Chief Commissioner of Police has courteously furnished me with a
list of the common lodging-houses in this parish. These houses are
regulated by special statutes,—"The Common Lodging-houses Act, 1851,"
and " The Common Lodging-houses Act, 1853," and are placed under the
control of the police. Ever since these places were put in their hands,
it has been too readily assumed that, as regards sanitary condition, the
houses were in such a satisfactory state, that no Fever case ever occurred in
them. This supposed exemption of the inmates of common lodginghouses
having recently been doubted, and the Medical Officer of the Privy
Council having expressed an opinion to a Metropolitan Board, that the
Medical Officer of Health is not absolved from his sanitary duties in regard
to a house in his district, because it is registered as a common lodging-house,
and that he is the most proper person to advise the police, acting as local
authority under " The Common Lodging-house Act, 1853," sec. 7, as to
the course to be pursued for preventing the spread of disease ; and that the
Medical Officer of Health will do well to give every assistance in his power
to the Police Inspectors, in regard to common lodging-houses in his district,
as well, when asked by them, by advising them on sanitary matters, and
giving a certificate of satisfactory disinfection as, without being asked to do
so, by calling their attention to any sanitary defects in such houses or their
management, I have had all these registered places visited and reported on.
There are 24 registered common lodging-houses in St. Pancras, and
most of these are situated near Fitzroy Place and Fitzroy Square : 23 of
these places are in use, and are licensed for 335 beds. The houses are, as a
rule, in good sanitary condition; and they have, in the aggregate, contributed,
as far as I can ascertain, only one case of Fever (a case of Scarlet Fever)
to the Fever Hospitals in 1869. No case of Relapsing Fever, or of any form
of continued Fever, occurred in them during the past year.
SMALL POX AND VACCINATION.
The year 1869 was one of nearly entire immunity from Small Pox
until the month of December. Only one death occurred from this disease.
The closing month of the year was marked, however, by an apparently
sudden extension of the disorder into all the wards of the parish, except