View report page

14
Adult Males, 361 Females, 199 Boys and 152 Girls, and of
these, 19 were Idiots, or Imbeciles. At the same date, there
were 24 Lunatics at Hanwell; 72 at Colney Hatch; 4 at
Peckham; 1 at Camberwell; and 13 at Bethnal House.
Habitations of the Poorer Classes.
The last subject of my Report—one of deep interest in its
bearing on Pauper Statistics, on which, in fact, the amount
of our Poor Rates chiefly depends—is the "Internal Life,"
or the homes of the poorer and industrial classes. If we
would strike at the roots of disease—at the prime causes of
our death excess, and untimely decease, we must obviate the
dangers that many of these miserable dwellings entail. It is
not enough, great as are the advantages resulting therefrom,
that they have scavenging, drainage, and water: if there be
not ventilation within and without; if the courts be culs-desacs,
and the houses be also of the cul-de-sac form; if their
structural arrangements shut out the light; and especially,
if with these, overcrowding occur:—such physical conditions
will still war against life. Their atmosphere will be fetid
with breath and skin poisons, will generate fever, destroy
their adults, and leave the poor orphans to burden our Rates.
But,—without a thorough reform of all such pestiferous places
as Nova Scotia Gardens with its mountains of house refuse,
road mud, offal, and filth;—as the manure baking depots of
Digby Street, Globe Lane;—as Elizabeth Place, or Devil's
Alley where lately were harboured in 30 small rooms of 10
feet by 6, and 2 sheds, 90 human beings, 2 horses, a dogfancier's
dogs, and a goat;—as John's Court where the houses
comprise one room in depth, and two rooms in height, and
are minus back yards, windows, and doors, where 2 privies,
confined in a corner, are almost enough to knock a man
down;—as No. 1, Collingwood Street, where an open privy
poisons the air, and the ground floor front room derives all
its light from 2 small panes of glass; which, for want of a