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80
It will be seen from this table that since 1906 there has been a very great
increase in the number of children who escape vaccination, the figures having
risen from under a hundred to near fifteen hundred, and the percentage
twenty-fold. The effect of this is seen in the reduction of the percentage of
children successfully vaccinated from 68.0 to 40.4 since the same year.
This change is, no doubt, a consequence of the Vaccination Act, 1907, which
provided for the substitution of a statutory declaration as to conscientious
objection for the certificate of the Justices. As a result, the "immunity" to
small pox of the population of the Borough, and particularly of the younger
members, must be much less than seven years ago, and still diminishing.
DWELLING HOUSES.
The most important feature of the housing problems in St. Pancras as in
many other parts of London is the almost universal practice of sub-letting to
several families each houses which were built for single families. A typical
case is a house consisting of a basement and ground floor with two or more
floors above, each floor, consisting of two rooms, being let out to one family.
Such sub-letting renders the provision of even reasonably good accommodation
for each family impossible, quite apart from the fact that two
rooms are not sufficient for the needs of a family with several children.
Notices have been served during the year under section 78 of the London
County Council (General Powers) Act, 1907, for additional water taps upstairs
in many houses, and much work has also been done in prohibiting the use for
sleeping-places of underground rooms in contravention of section 7 of the
Housing, Town Planning, &c., Act, 1909. and the regulations made thereunder.
This, however, only affects for the better the tenement-house problem in
a minor degree. It leaves untouched the difficulty of the lack of separate
kitchen, scullery, food-storage, water-closet and yard accommodation for the
separate tenements. In many houses these difficulties can only be dealt with
by complete or partial rebuilding, but in large blocks of our tenement houses
much could be done by the erection at the rear of each house of a sanitary
annexe which would enable each floor to have a balcony giving access to a w.c.
and washhouse, and perhaps other accommodation.
Inspection of Dwelling-Houses.
At the present time inspection of dwelling-houses is carried out under the
following circumstances : —
1.—Whenever a case of notifiable infectious disease (except Consumption) is
reported, the house where the case occurred is subjected to a sanitary
inspection and the drains tested. During the year 1,733 such inspections
were made, followed by 1,484 re-inspections.
2. — Whenever a complaint is received as to the condition of any house a sanitary
inspection of the house is carried out. The drains of many houses are tested
by this procedure. During the year 2,291 inspections were made in consequence
of complaints, and 5,440 consequent re-inspections.