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71
room as her parents. There were only 2 rooms available and 2
grown-up boys were sleeping in the other room, which also served
the purpose of a kitchen. The boys could not very well be asked
to seek other lodgings, as they were the chief means of support of
the family. The father was out of work and the mother suffered
from rheumatism.
There was a general air of apathy about the house. It
was full of rubbish, and the whole place was in a filthy condition.
1 n addition to the verminous condition of the two children inspected
in school, the rooms were literally over-run with bed bugs.
The inspector, when he visited the house, showed the
occupant the bugs which were walking along the walls, and evidently
very little effort had been made by the tenants to control
them in any way.
We had served notice on the landlord in 1930, to do certain
work and the house had been re-decorated. In spite of this, the
conditions in the Autumn of 1931 were deplorable. Even if the
heads of the children had not been infested with lice, it would be
unfair and unkind to the other children in the class to allow the
children from this house to attend school.
Anyone who is acquainted with the habits of the bed bug
knows how difficult it is to get rid of this pest once it finds lodgment
in a house.
Investigations were carried out recently by the Gasgow
Health Dept. and it was ascertained that a bed bug can live for some
months without any sort of food, and at the end of that time can
reproduce its kind, and its young can then subsist for another couple
of months without food. The ordinary method of disinfection are
useless ; the bed bug shelters itself in crevices and cracks and unless
the disinfectant acts directly on it, it will survive. If there is a
picture rail in the room, it has to be taken down, and cracks and
crevices have to be stopped. Even then it is doubtful if the bugs
are always killed.
It was arranged in this house to remove the furniture out
into the yard and endeavour by spraying and fumigation to get rid
of the pests, but our hopes of success were faint. Unless we can
instil into the occupants some spark of self-respect, and a determination
to be clean, a relapse will occur and the same process has again
to be repeated after the next inspection.
I have mentioned this case in detail, as I wish to impress
upon the Committee that the question of uncleanliness is not a
simple one, but is usually complicated by many factors.