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62
Health of the District.
The health of the district during the past four weeks has
been quite exceptional. It is true there have been 15 cases of
smallpox, but this, considering the anticipated seasonal
increase in May, is quite an insignificant number; had the
outbreak pursued its usual course, the number might well
have been 10 times 15, i.e., 150. The deaths from all infectious
diseases are only 9, giving a zymotic death-rate of 8
per 10,000, the number for the corresponding period of a five
years' average being at the rate of 21 per 10,000. The
average general death rate for May is about 18 per 1,000;
this month it is but 16.
No. 3, Upper Gloucester Place.
In a month or two the Public Health Department
will have removed to temporary premises at the above
address. The writer believes that, standing at the edge
of one of the main arteries of the borough, the situation
will be more convenient to the inhabitants than Marylebone
Lane. At all events, the offices can be reached by
any resident within 15 minutes. The omnibus routes and
the Underground Railway also give ample facilities of
cheap and speedy access for those in other parts of the
metropolis who have business with the Public Health
Department.
Housing of the Working Classes Acts.
Nightingale Street Scheme.—As far back as 1898,
the writer presented a Report on the condition of Nightingale
Street. Successive steps, by the Sanitary Committee of the
Old Vestry and the Committees of the present Council,
culminated in the London County Council preparing a
scheme under Part I. of the Housing Act, an inquiry by the
Home Secretary, and a Provisional Order which received
the sanction of Parliament; nevertheless the houses
deteriorated in structure still stand, and a recent attempt
to close, under Part II., six houses, has for the moment
failed, the cases being dismissed by the Stipendiary
Magistrate under a pure technicality.