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by the late Mr. Hodson, the Registrar for the sub-district of Norton
Folgate, who stated that he had good reason to believe the age was correctly
entered. For further particulars respecting this death I refer the reader to
page 8 of my report for the quarter ended June, 1861; and more recently
the death of a man, aged 103, was registered in the Spitalfields sub-district.
This man was said to have lived 70 years in the same house. Although
some of these very aged persons may not have known their age, and may
have supposed themselves to have been older than they really were; still
it is difficult to believe that all the 69 persons recorded in the table above
alluded to have been under delusion as regarded their respective ages. It
appears that nine of these old people died in London, and the remaining 60
in different parts of the country.
Not only have the labours of your Board resulted in a decrease
in the rate of mortality, as is shown above, but the number of sick paupers
has diminished from 17,417 cases, which is the number recorded by the
Medical Officers of the Union in the year 1867, to 2060 in 1877, which
however increased last year to 3107. This increase in the number of sick
paupers is accounted for by the numerous cases of destitution which
occurred in the Registered Lodging Houses. I do not attribute this very
large diminution of pauper cases of sickness entirely to the improved sanitary
condition of the District, although it must have some influence in
reducing the number of sick poor. This satisfactory result is largely
attributable to the judicious arrangements for medical and general relief
made by the Board of Guardians; particulars of which will be found in
a 'Memorandum,' with which I was furnished by Mr. Vallance, Clerk to
the Guardians, at page 10 of my report for the Quarter ended 30 th
December, 1871. In addition to these satisfactory results the comfort of
the poorer inhabitants has been considerably increased by the demolition of
about 3450 cesspools; the removal of the business of bone-boilers and
other similarly offensive factories; the removal of innumerable nuisances;
the diminution of overcrowding in the houses of the poor and in the
Registered Lodging Houses, 300 cubic feet being now the space allotted to
each bed in every room. The fall particulars regarding each lodging house
in the District are set forth in my reports for January, 1876; April, 1876;
July, 1376; and October, 1876; where it will be seen that at the time
these rooms were visited more than one-half of them contained a
less space for each occupant of a bed than 300 cubic feet. Some were found
to allow only 151 cubic feet.
There will also be found greater cleanliness in the houses of the poor,
better paving, draining and cleanliness of the back yards, the demolition
of some of the houses which were unfit for habitation, and the carrying out