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STRAW OR LITTER IN THE STREETS. 19
two stories high, there should be no difficulty in building
on the site healthy dwellings capable of housing double
the number.
17 and 19 Burne Street were also reported under
the Housing of the Working Classes Act, and closed by
Magistrate's Order.
STRAW OR LITTER IN THE STREETS.
The district of St. Marylebone possesses streets in
which a large proportion of the houses are fitted up as
nursing establishments. Patients come from a distance,
suffering from serious maladies, and are received in these
nursing homes, within easy reach of the physician or
specialist. In many of them surgical operations are performed.
All, so far as the writer is aware, are conducted
by skilled nurses, and are well managed establishments.
Such places are a great advantage to the wealthier class
of suffering humanity, and supply a distinct want. There
is one disadvantage, that is, some of the sufferers require
the muffling of the street noises as far as possible, hence
these nursing streets are almost constantly littered with
straw. The Public Health Act expressly exempts from
penalty any person putting down straw or litter in cases
of illness. There is no definition of the term " illness ";
it is open for any malade imaginaire to litter the
streets as often as he pleases. Until the litter gets
rotten and stinks, the Local Authority cannot compel
its removal. The Vestry agree with the writer that it
is high time, so far as St. Marylebone is concerned, that
there should be power to regulate the deposit of litter
in the streets. No one wishes to prevent it altogether,
but the Local Authority should certainly possess a veto
in cases' where it is either unnecessary or where other
means could be adopted of muffling sounds. The Vestry
have therefore suggested to the London County Council
the propriety of inserting a clause in one of their Bills,
enabling Local Authorities to frame regulations as to
the laying down of straw or other litter.