View report page

11
mentioned was in bed, on which the mother, who was not ill, was lying
down; and the father was sitting on the chair by the side of the bed, with
his head resting upon it. Mr. Loane urged the removal of the patient, but
the boy refused to be taken away. The smell of this room was very offensive,
although the window was open. Notice was served upon the landlord
to diminish the overcrowding of the room; but, owing to three of the inmates
having been attacked with fever, it was deemed advisable not to enforce
immediate compliance with the notice, but to wait until the patients had
recovered.
The last severe epidemic of fever was in 1862, when 250 deaths occurred
in this District, and 822 cases were recorded in the books of the Medical
Officers of the Union.
In 1838, however, the severest outbreak of fever known to this generation
occurred in the metropolis, when, in a population of less than 2,000,000,
(the population being, according to the census of 1831, 1,594,890) the
deaths from fever were 4078 ; and in the Whitechapel District, in a population
of about 69,000, the deaths were 368, exclusive of those which
occurred in the Fever Hospital. The death-rate for the year 1837-8, in the
Whitechapel District, was 4.5 per cent. ; while the death-rate for the last
year was reduced to 2.5 per cent., or nearly one-half. The extra expense
incurred by the Union, for fever cases alone, for the quarter ending Lady
Day, 1838, was estimated by the late Mr, John Smith to be £400.
Although much has been done to improve the sanitary condition of this
%
District, much more is required to be done ; and, so long as the numerous
narrow and confined courts remain, in which the houses are old, dilapidated,
ill-constructed, and without sufficient ventilation, we cannot expect to have
a much lower rate of mortality than is now found to exist.
School Board School, Old Castle Street.
In my Eeport for September, 1872, I drew attention to the fact that
the School Board for London had purchased a piece of ground in Old Castle
Street, which had been for many years the site of a brewery. The school
building is now completed, and is intended to receive within its walls 1272
children, viz., 396 boys, 396 girls, and 480 infants, for all of whom ample
accommodation appears to have been provided. But the great drawback to
the full advantages which may reasonably be expected to be derived from
this institution, the first which has been completed in London, is the very
confined locality in which it is situated. My object in adverting to the
confined situation of this building, into which so many of the children of
the poorer classes will assemble daily, is not to express any feeling of regret
that this particular site has been selected, (for I believe it is the only one
available for that purpose in Whitechapel) but to draw the attention of the
Sphool Board and the public to the desirability, I may almost say necessity,
for maintaining the health and comfort of the numerous children who will
attend that School, to widen the approaches to it. Although there are three