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34
Dr. Southwood Smith, a leading sanitarian, stated that "at
present, no more regard is paid to the construction of houses or to
health of the people than is paid to the health of pigs in the making
of styes for them" (Select Committee Health of Towns 1840).
The gross overcrowding in London was evidenced before the
Royal Commission on the Health of Towns in 1847, in terms "there
appears to be no available legal means of preventing overcrowding;
all we can do is to put it out as a source of evil to be dealt with
hereafter.' The frequent occupation of cellars, which were subject
to flooding, in contravention of London 3uilding Act of 1844, was
dealt with by requiring Overseers to report all offences to the Official
Referee who in turn notified the District Surveyors to enforce the
Referee's orders.
The Common Lodging Houses Act, 1851 which enabled the
Police Commissioner to control overcrowding in London lodging
houses, was amended and improved in 1853, to require the registration
of both premises and keepers thereat and to limit the number
of occupants, to prevent overcrowding and for the making of frequent
inspections to control such houses. The police were designated the
supervisory authority solely because of the refusal or reluctance of
the sanitary authorities of the period to discharge their statutory
health functions.
An attempt to alleviate the gross overcrowding was made by
the Artizans and Labourers Dwellings Act, 1868 which permitted
local authorities to provide lodging houses for the poor and to borrow
money for that purpose, but without avail, however, for the principal
defect in sanitary administration lay not in the absence of legal
rules but rather in its non-execution and its permissive character.
The Sanitary Act, 1866 empowered local sanitary authorities
to promulgate regulations to control houses let in lodgings which
were to be inspected and approved by the designated officer of the
authority and thereafter were to be constantly supervised to prevent
overcrowding by fixing the number of occupants, to require the owner
to provide suitable sanitary amenities, maintain cleanliness and
remedy all nuisances. Once again, however, the law was flouted by
the simple practice of not submitting regulations for the approval
of the Secretary of State or if they had been so approved, by omitting
to appoint the necessary sanitary officers to enforce them.
Indeed the Royal Sanitary Commission Report of 1871 some
six years after the passing of the Sanitary Act reported "however