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number of cubic feet for each lodger in these 53 rooms, was as follows:—
197, 210, 215, 219, 221, 221, 222, 223, 225, 228, 231, 232, 234, 234,
235, 235, 235, 236, 238, 240, 241, 242, 242, 242, 242, 242, 246, 246,
246, 247, 252, 252, 252, 252, 255, 257, 257, 259, 259, 267, 268, 269,
270, 270, 277, 280, 282, 288, 288, 292, 297, 298, and 298."
As I have reason to believe that some of the other lodging-houses are
overcrowded, Mr. Battram will shortly make a further report on the cubic
space which is allotted to a bed in each room.
In the month of October, 1870, I brought under the notice of the Board the
question of the sanitary state, as regarded the overcrowding, of the registered
common lodging-houses in the District; when the Board unanimously resolved
that, in their opinion, a space of 300 cubic feet, at least, should be allowed
to each lodger in the old, as well as in the new, registered lodging-houses.
The space allotted in workhouses to each infirm person able to leave
their dormitories during the day, is 500 cubic feet, and for healthy persons
300 cubic feet.* If 300 cubic feet of space is required for each healthy
inmate in a dormitory of a workhouse, where scrupulous cleanliness and
proper ventilation is observed, such a space is much more necessary for the
class of persons who reside in the common lodging-houses, who, for the most
part, have neither a clean skin nor clean clothes.
""Waking the Dead."
At No. 1, Compasses Court, where a death had occurred from fever, Mr.
Battram found, upon visiting the house, that a "wake" was being held
over the body. He was informed by Mr. Loane, the Union Medical Officer,
that upon his visit, after the death of the patient, there were no less than
ten persons in the small room where the corpsc was lying. Upon his remonstrating
with them for being there, they said they thought it was only
showing an act of kindness to the friends of the deceased. The ceremony of
watching the dead body, or "waking the dead," as it is called, is, during the
prevalence of an epidemic, attended with great danger, as is shown to be the
case in my Report on Cholera.
Daily Cleansing of the Streets.
The importance, in a sanitary point of view, of having the streets
cleansed daily, and especially the back streets in which the poor principally
reside, cannot be too highly estimated. There is little room for doubt
that inflammatory affections of the lungs are frequently produced, and
are always aggravated, by persons being exposed to a cold atmosphere,
and especially when it is accompanied by moisture. The large evaporating
surface of the streets in London, when covered with slush, frequently
produces great suffering in those who are exposed to its influence, and
especially in those whose constitutions are enfeebled by the want of
* For these two classes of day-room accommodation there is required in addition to the
amount of 500 and 300 cubic feet allotted to each respectively as sleeping apartments.