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Locality. It will be seen from the distribution shown in the
table, that there is little to choose between the wards, so far as
number of cases is concerned, and this, indeed, was to be expected
from the homogeneous nature of the district, both in regard to
population and general conditions. A study of the list of deaths in
streets, however, shows a marked grouping of the fatal cases in certain
areas of the different wards, e.g., certain streets of the Hyde (20),
Winchester Road (8), the Langhedge group of roads (5), Union
Road and Gilpin Grove (5), St. Mary's Road, etc. (6), and it is
significant to note that in 1898, a bad diarrhoea year, the Medical
Officer at that time (Dr. Green) refers in his annual report to the
last three groups of roads as being areas in which the disease was
then very prevalent.
With the houses themselves, in some of these groups at any rate,
e.g. Winchester Road and the Hyde, there is little fault to find ;
they are well built and the sanitary arrangements are in good order.
In the latter locality the houses are certainly more closely concentrated
than is the case in other parts of the district, but even here
the space at the back is, in most cases, considerable and would be
quite sufficient for the ordinary requirements of health if it were
kept reasonably clean. This is not done, however, in the majority
of instances and most of the evils that I have noted under " Yards
and Gardens " are to be found in the worst kept of these houses.