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for the interest taken by the Committee in their welfare. The report, consisting
of twelve pages, contains some valuable remarks on the subject of
public health, and lays bare the condition of the houses and surroundings
of the people visited, and concludes with the following summary of
results:—
Number of visits to families, including 51 special visits 7600
„ of persons induced to keep their rooms clean 460
„ „ „ their windows clean 591
„ „ „ to attend the public baths 461
Instances in which nuisances have been removed 26
Number of privies emptied 7
„ of rooms, &c., whitewashed, &c., by tenants at their
own expense 14
The Committee, in closing their report, tendered their best thanks to
the Trustees of the Parish for the very prompt manner in which they
attended to the representations of their agent respecting nuisances, and for
the anxiety they had shown in their endeavours to suppress the numerous
fertile sources of disease which abound in this populous Parish, not only
by the personal exertions of their own Committees, and giving strict
injunctions to the Inspector of Nuisances to take legal proceedings against
all persons who refused to abate the nuisance complained of (and it appears
that within little more than twelve months 384 persons had been proceeded
against for nuisances of various kinds but also for representing to the
Home Secretary and the General Board of Health, such cases of overcrowding,
vice and depravity, as were reported to them, but over which
they had no control.
I have given above a few details of the working of this useful
Association, in the hope that the example will be followed by every
district in London. Voluntary Associations for the promotion of Public
Health might be advantageously organised, and inspections of the houses
and localities, and kindly visits to the poor occupants, might be made
from time to time by intelligent persons of both sexes, who would be
able and willing to give instruction on matters relating to health. In
my report for June, 1877, I suggested the formation of a small voluntary
association in every district for the purpose of visiting the poorer localities
during the prevalence of small-pox, and kindly explaining to the mother
of a family her duty of having her children vaccinated. Such a proceeding
would, I believe, do more in promoting the general adoption of
vaccination than now results from the visits of paid officers. In 1866,
during the prevalence of cholera, voluntary visiting associations were