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16
Poliomyelitis
Polioencephalitis
and
Encephalitis
Lethargica.
The number of cases of poliomyelitis and polioencephalitis notified during 1921 was 59. In three
cases the diagnosis was revised, whilst another was considered to be doubtful.
During 1921, there were 243 cases of encephalitis lethargica notified of which 87 were notified
during January, and 50 in February. The disease had already commenced to increase in prevalence in
December, 1920, and reached its climax during January 1921. Of the 243 cases notified 45 proved not
to be genuine cases and in 9 others the diagnosis was considered to be doubtful. Two further cases
were recorded but were not notified officially. Of the 191 actual cases, 60 (31 per cent.) proved fatal.

Laboratory
work and
assistance
in diagnosis
During 1921, as in former years, the services of the Council's medical staff were placed at the
disposal of medical officers of health and medical practitioners in suspected cases of cerebrospinal
meningitis, encephalitis lethargica, etc., and in this connection 104 cases of illness associated with cerebral
conditions were investigated. The diagnosis was thus established in instances in which, without the
expert advice and pathological enquiry, it could not otherwise have been arrived at.
B.—Administration.
It may be noted at the outset that certain statistical infoimaticn available is summarised in
Table II. on page 25, and details connected with the administration of the General Powers Acts (Tuberculous
milk) and with the supervision of slaughterhouses, cowhouses, and offensive trades, will be found
in Chapter XXV.
Nuisances.
Correspondence ensued between the Council and the St. Pancras Metropolitan Borough Council
on a complaint by inhabitants of that district, as to nuisance experienced from the emission of dust and
grit from the chimney shafts of the borough council's electricity works and dust destructor. An
improvement was effected and steps were taken to prevent a recurrence of the nuisance.
Offensive
trades.
During the year the right to carry on the following offensive businesses lapsed by reason of their
discontinuance for the statutory period of nine months, viz., the business of a fat melter in Wandsworth,
a manure manufacturer in Bermondsey, and a tripe boiler in Southwark.
Common and
seamen's
lodging
houses,
The supervision of the 181 common lodging houses licensed by the Council entailed 11,98? day
visits and 468 night visits by the inspectors.
In connection with the supervision of 51 seamen's lodging houses licensed under the Merchant
Shipping Act, 1894, the Council's inspectors paid 1,387 visits by day and 146 by night.
Census of
homeless
persons.
A census of homeless persons in London was taken on the night of 11th February, 1921. the
area covered extended over the whole of the county except the outlying portions which are not usually
the resort of such persons. The night was fine and fairly mild. Only ten persons (2 males and 8
females) were found sheltering under arches or on staircases. In the streets 48 men and 8 women were
found, as compared with 28 men and 13 women in 1920, and 296 men and 76 women in the early part of
1914 before the war. In the common lodging houses, 14,000 persons were accommodated as compared
with 14,333 in 1920, and 20,173 in 1914. In the free shelters and labour homes not licensed as common
lodging houses there were 747 men, 165 women and 22 children, as compared with 86 men, 61 women
and 2 children in 1920. The number of persons in London casual wards on the night in question was 176
males and 12 females and there were 263 vacant beds. The number of inmates at the date of the last
census was 88, and the vacant beds numbered 308. At Rowton Houses 5,041 men were accommodated
as aeainst 5.054 in 1920. and there were 5 vacant beds as against none in 1920.
Housing of
transmigrants.
The Council's action with regard to the housing of transmigrants is dealt with in Chapter XXV.
The traffic has been watched with the closest attention by the Council in view of the prevalence on a
great scale of epidemic disease in Eastern Europe. The incidence of typhus in Russia in the years 1919
and 1920. has been given as exceeding two and three million cases respectively ; in 1921, the numbers
had, however, fallen to approximately half a million. Relapsing fever, typhoid fever, and dysentery
were also reported as very prevalent, but there was probably some confusion as regards diagnosis.
177,000 cases of Asiatic cholera had been reported up to the end of October, 1921, in Russia. In Poland
219 cases of smallpox were reported during the last 5 weeks of 1921.
Housing
Acts.
Details of the progress made with the several represented insanitary areas and the housing schemes
undertaken by the Council are specially dealt with in Chapter XXVII.
The following table shows the houses in each borough in 1921 ; the number repaired under Section
28 of the Housing Act of 1919 ; certain other particulars as to conditions in 1921; and the action taken
by the metropolitan borough councils under the provisions of Section 17 of the Housing and Town