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Another evil I find in their houses is unnecessary
furniture, ornaments, and drapery. These are not kept
clean, and are receptacles for dust and filth. It is a very
common occurrence when passing along a dark, narrow
passage to be flapped in the face by some dirty curtains,
which have been artistically hung and draped to make
the kitchen a little more private, or, as they tell you, to
take off the length of the passage.
Owners, I find, when served with a notice to abate
a nuisance arising from damp walls, try to evade the
remedy by covering up the dampness with matchboarding.
This is a very old idea, and it is difficult to
convince such persons that, although the matchboarding
has been erected, the dampness still exists, and that the
only permanent remedy is to insert a damp course
beneath the lowest timbers, and sometimes a vertical
damp course as well, according to the circumstances
giving rise to the dampness.
In July the Council sent me to Glasgow as a
delegate to the Sanitary Conference, and the proceedings
were most valuable and instructive. Two important
inventions which were on view at the Exhibition I
should like to bring to the Council's notice. The first is
an arrangement for the cleaning of premises without
dismantling. It is not altogether new, but there is no
doubt it is the right method for house-cleaning, and
should be brought to the notice of the public. By means
of air in a high state of vacuum suction all articles are
instantly freed from dust by passing a flat-shaped nozzle
over the carpets, furniture, &c. The dust is drawn down
a tube into a receptacle provided for the purpose outside
the building. In the London area alone, during the
year, 7,000 houses were thus cleaned and 63 tons of solid
dust were removed. As is well known, dust assists in
the production of a low state of health, especially among
children, and the more general use of such a mode of
house-cleaning should be welcomed by all.