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cases are made so narrow and steep that they are difficult to ascend, and
dangerous to descend; and the passages in those rooms which are allotted to
married couples are extremely narrow, and, in many instances, very
dark.
The alterations which I would suggest to bo made in these lodginghouses
are, 1st, the diminution of the number of persons now occupying
them to such an extent as to give to each person a free space of at least 300*
cubic feet; 15 additional cubic feet of space should be allowed for each bed.
so that the free space for each lodger should be 300 cubic feet. 2nd, the
ventilation should be improved, and it should be so arranged, that, if
possible, the free entrance and exit of the air cannot be interfered with.
Some improvement in the ventilation of the rooms might be effected by
causing all the windows to open at the top as well as at the bottom,
3rdly, all those houses in which the ventilation is imperfect and cannot be
improved, should be discontinued to be used as common lodging-houses; and
lastly, all the water-butts now in use (some of which are old and without
covers or taps), should be discontinued, and slate cisterns substituted for
them; or, where practicable, the water should be supplied direct from the
main, as may be obtained by the use of water-waste preventers, which are
now proved to be so beneficial in this District. Where, however, the water
is laid on to the lavatories which are in the house, then, and then only, the
water-waste preventers as at present in use, will not apply.
Before I inspected these common lodging houses, which I have only
recently done, I was led to believe, from the extravagant terms that were
used in praise of them, that each was, as regarded its sanitary
condition, the beau-ideal of perfection, "that no fever case ever occurred
in any of them;" and this belief in the supposed exemption
of these places from fever has been handed down to us as a fact, ever
since they were placed in the hands of the police. The belief in the
healthfulness of these houses exists even now in the minds of many persons,
and I regret to find in a publication, of a very recent date, the author of
which is a medical practitioner of eminence, that the stereotyped opinion
respecting the healthy condition of the common lodging houses is continued.
The words used are "that from these places, formerly the dens of fever,
typhus has been entirely banished !"
Now, if overcrowding, defective ventilation, the most abominable smells,
arising from the smoking of tobacco, and from the dirty clothes and
unwashed bodies of the lodgers, who meet together in large numbers in the
kitchens, and by the use of water stored in butts, without covers or taps,
and exposed to the contaminating influence of the atmosphere of a crowded
neighbourhood, will produce fever; then, it follows, that, where these evils
exist, as they unquestionably do, in many of these lodging houses, fever
* Although at the present time it would be almost hopeless to insist upon a larger space for a bed
than 315 cubic feet, yet, in the course of a few years when sanitary science is better understood, a
larger space will be demanded, probably, at least, 400 cubic feet; and as the Poor Law Board has recently
demanded a much larger cubic space for each inmate in a workhouse, it cannot be objected to that after
twenty years the cubic space for the inmates of a lodging house should be increased.