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when the staff was increased, considerable advance has been made, a large number of streets
having now been reported upon. The streets inspected are marked on a map which shows the
localities dealt with in the course of each year. Mr. Taylor informs me that he anticipates the
entire district will have been under house to house inspection in another year's time. In the event of
this anticipation being realised, the first survey of Mile End will have occupied between four and five
years. Mr. Taylor hopes that the second survey will be effected in a shorter time, both by reason of the
substantial improvements which will have been carried out as result of the original house to house
inspection, and because the greater part of the inspection in progress has been effected since June, 1892.
The complaint book shows a marked falling off in the number of complaints this year ; dealing with
complaints I am told does not at the present time absorb a large share of the inspectors' attention, and
it seems as though the proportion of their time devoted to " work on complaint " will tend to further
diminish.
Each inspector performs the work in his own district in connection with notifications of infectious
disease and with workshops. In all cases of diphtheriu and typhoid fever, drain testing is carried out
and, if necessary, re.construction is insisted upon. The majority of the workshops are situated in No. 3
district (west and south wards). The great improvement which has been carried out in these places
cannot fail to have most important and far.reaching influences. The contrast between the results
as to overcrowding obtained on my inspection of workshops in Mile End at the end of 1892 and in
August of this year is very marked, though allowance must be made for the fact that the first inspection
was made at a busier time of year than the second, and that the second inspection covered wider ground
than the first. Again, during the last two years separate water.closet accommodation for persons of the
two sexes, in accordance with the requirement of section 38 of the Public Health (London) Act, has
been provided in those instances in which men and women are employed on the same premises, and the
law relating to this matter is now systematically enforced.
♦By.laws under section 94 of the Public Health (London) Act are under the consideration of the
vestry. Some use has, I am told, been made of regulations as to houses let in lodgings, under
the Sanitary Act of 1866 ; latterly, however, reliance has been solely placed on the carrying out of the
system of house to house inspection. A large percentage of the houses in Mile End are let in lodgings
or occupied by members of more than one family, and a complete survey of them would involve little
short of a house to house inspection of the district. There are certain streets and groups of houses
however in which frequent inspection is particularly needed, and for these by.laws under section 94
would be especially useful. To thoroughly carry out a complete system of periodical supervision of
such houses would entail extra work, and as has been seen the time required for a complete house to
house inspection of the district has not as yet been reduced within desirable limits. The statutory
requirement that the vestry shall enforce by.laws for houses let in lodgings or occupied by members of
more than one family will, when complied with, no doubt necessitate the strengthening of the staff.
W. H. Hamer,
Assistant Medical Officer of Health.
* By.laws under sections 16 (1), 39 (2), and 60 of the Public Health London (1891) Act have been made by
the vestry.