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81
Housing of
tuberculous
families
The Council's policy of giving a measure of priority to applicants for rehousing
who have tuberculosis in the family was continued. During 1950, the Council
provided houses or flats for 870 families or individuals who had been granted priority
on account of tuberculosis.
HALF A CENTURY OF TUBERCULOSIS IN LONDON
A REVIEW OF CHANGES AND TRENDS SINCE 1900*
"Comparisons with the past are absolutely necessary to the comprehension
of all that exists to-day; without them we cannot penetrate to the heart of
things." Chas. Booth—" Life and Labour in London," Vol. IX, 1897.
Before 1900
In reviewing what has transpired in the past half century in relation to tuberculosis
in London, it will be well, first, to look back a little at the state of affairs before
1900. The rapid expansion of industry, commerce and shipping which took place
in London in the second half of the nineteenth century was largely responsible for
the increase in population from 1½ millions in 1830, 2½ millions in 1850, to 4½ millions
in 1900. For the past 25 years the figure has been gradually decreasing, The social
and sanitary conditions of London during that half century were only just emerging
from the condition Sir Edwin Chadwick had described in his 1842 Report to the
Poor Law Commissioners in these words :—"The various forms of epidemic, endemic
and other disease caused or propagated chiefly among the labouring classes by
atmospheric impurities produced by decomposing animal and vegetable substances,
by damp and filth, and close and overcrowded dwellings prevail among the population
in every part of the kingdom as they have been found to prevail in the lowest districts
of the metropolis."
In 1838 the average age at death of the London "gentleman" and professional
person was 44 years while that of a tradesman was 26 years and a London mechanic,
servant or labourer 24 years. In 1840 the City of London's one square mile was so
crowded with dwellings occupied by a population of 128,000 that there was no
further room for building. In 1848 no less than 14,000 persons died in the metropolis
from typhus and cholera.
In 1891 the general mortality rate from all causes of death in London was
21.1 per thousand of the populace; by 1921 this had fallen to 12.5 per thousand.
In 1850 it was computed that 80,000 (of the total of 300,000) London dwellings
housing 640,000 persons had no water supply. The influence of bad housing conditions
and low wages in inducing and aggravating tuberculosis has long been
established.
Sir John Simon, who was Medical Officer to H.M. Privy Council, and before
that, the first Medical Officer of Health to the Corporation of London, a great pioneer
of sanitary administration and reform, wrote in 1890 of poverty in London:—
"As the largest and most miscellaneous labour market in the country, it
has drawn competitors for the various chances of employment from all parts
of England and from elsewhere. So far as the innumerable immigrants have
not found employment in adequately paid industries, they of course have added
to the poverty of their new settling place. The London labour market has been
distinguished by a terribly large 'casual' department in which the workers,
apparently next door to destitution, are perhaps for two-thirds of their time idle.
The above-mentioned two facts as to London—the fact of its so largely attracting
industrial immigration and the fact that in its lower-class industries a large
proportion of working power is left unemployed—are facts of cardinal importance
in the case; for the distresses, domestic and industrial, which have
* This retrospect (pages 81 to 93) is mainly the work of Dr. W. Hartston, Senior Medical Officer
(Tuberculosis).