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thus that the solution of the cancer problem may ultimately be found to depend
upon the detection and modification of the cancer diathesis.
It is worthy of note in connection with these conclusions that most of the
deaths from malignant disease in the earlier years of life are due to sarcoma. Below
the age of 20 years, 96 per cent, of the total cancer deaths in London during 1902
—1910 were due to sarcoma ; while at ages over 35 years, to which the above
conclusions relate, 93 per cent, of the deaths from malignant disease were due to
carcinoma.
The cancer deaths under 20 years of age may therefore be taken to be representative
of the mortality from sarcoma, and although the figures, even for tenyear
periods and for England and Wales as a whole, are relatively very small, they
indicate that the variations of mortality from sarcoma since 1850 are rather more
closely correlated with contemporary conditions than with year of birth.
Common and
seamen's
lodging
houses.
Administration.
The supervision of the 164 common lodging houses licensed by the Council
under the L.C.C. (General Powers) Act, 1902, entailed 7,469 day visits and 287 night
visits by the inspectors. The supervision of 31 seamen's lodging houses licensed
under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, entailed 750 visits by day and 45 by night.
A comprehensive report on common lodging houses, with special reference to
the accommodation for women, was prepared in December, 1926, and is obtainable
at the Council's publishers, P. S. King and Son, 14, Great Smith Street, Westminster,
S.W.I., price Is. 6d.
Census of
homeless
persons.
A census of homeless persons in London was taken on the night of Friday, the
18th February, 1927. The area covered extended over the whole of the county,
except such of the outlying portions as are not usually the resort of such persons.
The night was fine and rather cold. Only five persons (two males and three females)
were found sheltering under arches or on staircases. In the streets 68 males and 28
females were found, as compared with 76 males and 24 females in 1926, and 296
males and 76 females in 1914, on the occasion of previous censuses. In the common
lodging-houses, 14,724 persons were accommodated as compared with 14,593 in
1926 and 20,173 in 1914, before the war. In the free shelters and labour homes not
licensed, 646 males, 134 females and 22 children were accommodated as compared
with 647 males, 125 females and 20 children in 1926. The number of persons in
casual wards and in the hostel under the auspices of the Metropolitan Asylums
Board on the night in question was 777 (764 males and 13 females), the largest
number recorded at any census since 1912. At London Rowton Houses, 5,042
men were accommodated and there was one vacant bed.
Verminous
lodgers in
common
lodging
houses.
Under section 37 of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1907, the
medical officer or any person provided with his authority (in writing) may examine
the person or clothing of any inmate of a common lodging-house where they have
reason to suspect that such person or clothing is verminous or in a foul and filthy
condition. There are no figures available as to the actual number of lodgers cleansed,
but a considerable improvement has been noted with regard to verminous conditions
in such houses.
Housing
Acts, etc.
An improvement scheme, under Part II. of the Housing Act, 1925, was made
by the Council and submitted to the Minister of Health for approval, in respect of
an area in the Metropolitan Borough of St. Marylebone, known as the Carlisle
Street area, comprising some eight acres, on which stood 310 dwelling-houses, together
with a few warehouses, etc., and having a population of about 2,832
persons.
The approval of the Minister of Health has, during the period under review, been
given to the Basing Place and Blue Anchor Lane improvement scheme and the
China Walk (Lambeth), and Hatfield Street and Hankey Place (Southwark)