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dense than in Camberwell, and in the majority of them much
more dense. In many of the more central ones, the inhabitants
are accumulated at the rate of 200 or 300 to an acre, and in
certain sub-districts, of which Berwick-street St. James's is a
notable example, there are more than 400 individuals in the
same space. You see, therefore, that in the comparative rarity
of its population, Camberwell enjoys one element of health in
a superior degree to almost all of the other London parishes; and
I have no doubt that it is to this element chiefly that the
comparative healthiness, which I have shown to prevail usually,
is mainly attributable. But if we look to our subdistricts, we
find that they differ greatly among themselves, that in Dulwich
the population is at the rate of one person to an acre, in
Camberwell at the rate of 13, in Peckham at that of 17, and
in St. George's at that of 36. And it is worthy of remark, that
though none of these numbers indicate a crowded population,
nevertheless the relative density corresponds pretty exactly
with the relative mortality. Yet, though even the most crowded
district of Camberwell as a whole is thinly peopled, there is
no doubt that in certain streets and courts an excessive degree
of overcrowding really does take place, which arises mainly
from the vicious practice of allowing each room in a house to
be occupied by one, aye, and even by more than one family,
and of admitting, as is too frequently the practice among the
poorer Irish, an indefinite number of nightly tenants into a
single apartment.
Water supply.—I have already in a special report directed
your attention to the subject of water supply. I have pointed
out by arguments, which I need not now repeat, how important
it is for cleanliness, comfort and health, that a plentiful and
constant supply should be within the reach of every one. I
have shown you how important it is that that which is destined
for our daily beverage should be reasonably pure, how great
a loss the use of hard water brings upon the poor, how
many evils the use of water contaminated by sewage or
decomposing organic matters entails upon all. I pointed out
that the water, as at present supplied by the Lambeth, the
Southwark and Vauxhall and the Kent Companies, is a fair
and palatable water, a water that may be drunk in perfect
safety, though it is yet scarcely so pure as the inhabitants of a
metropolis like that of England ought to be provided with; and