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ambulance. The wife, helpless without him, also had to go to
hospital. After a period of convalescence, the husband was
taken to a welfare institution in London, but in spite of
every care he declined in health and died.
The old woman, paralysed, is still in hospital, and it
is quite impossible for her to return to the basement room
without her husband to help her.
This case, which extended over nearly two years, involved
hours of work by many staff over a long period. The
clerical work associated with the case accumulated a file of
many pages,
(b) Miss M.P. and Miss S.P.
These two old sisters were found by the Sanitary Inspector
in war-damaged 100% basement rooms in the Whitechapel
area. Mary, aged 65, the younger sister, was the dominating
personality. All her life a cripple, she was formerly employed
making artificial flowers at home. Sarah,- aged about
70, of low mentality but physically active, earned money
ostensibly by charring, but we suspect she spent most of her
time begging, rather successfully, and seemed to be wellknown
in the shops in the area. Sarah was dominated by Mary,
and spent most of every day out of the house foraging.
Unlike Case (a), the two rooms were scantily furnished
except for a large bed and dirty bedding used by Mary, and a
broken chair-bed used by Sarah. Both received assistance
from the Assistance Board. They apparently used no ration
books, and neither was registered on a doctor's panel. There
were no cooking facilities except on an open coal fire at
which Mary sat all day, the coal supply heaped on the wooden
floor. There was neither china nor cutlery, and little else
but rags and rubbish. Both women were incredibly dirty and
unkempt.
When I.visited Mary with our lady Sanitary Inspector
she was unco-operative, and refused medical examination.
Her reluctance to examination was explained by the presence
of an elongated parcel bound round her body, suspected to
contain money.
Mary reluctantly accepted hot meals from the W.V.S.
Later she refused to allow the visitors to take the meals
downstairs. The plates, knives and forks provided disappeared,
and she then accepted the meals on a newspaper. It was
obvious that nothing constructive could be done for these two
women, and Mary, on a Magistrate's Order, was removed by
ambulance and' taken to hospital. Later Sarah was picked up
wandering by'the police,and admitted to an institution.
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