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has also obtained, so that instead of less than four persons to the
acre in 1801 and nearly 11 persons in 1841, we now have about
38 inhabitants to each acre. The great influence of density of
population on the death rates will be shown hereafter, and it is
merely mentioned here in common with other causes in action
affecting the sanitary state of the District. It must also be
remembered that although we derive considerable advantages
from our open spaces, amounting to 467 acres, yet as our
building space is reduced by that quantity, the number of persons
to an acre is in reality considerably in excess of thirty-eight. In
addition to the 467 acres of open spaces, there are 101 acres of
water, so that the living space which can be occupied in the
district for buildings and streets is only 3367 instead of 3935
acres. There are certain parts of the district which is densely
filled with small houses, so that each resident, counting two
children under 10 as one adult, has, when indoors, about 400
cubic feet of air. We fortunately have not very many courts,
and as most of these houses are small the density of population
in these streets is not likely to be henceforth largely increased.
The extension of streets and houses into the fields has gone
on so rapidly that there are but few fields left in the District, or
even large grounds belonging to any of the houses. The substitution
of houses and comparatively impermeable roads and footways
for fields or open spaces covered with trees, has rendered the
district more liable to floods, partly because the removal of trees
diminishes the ordinary rainfall and induces a liability to occasional
storms and floods, but chiefly because most of the rain runs
into the sewers instead of soaking into the ground. I therefore
fear that when the outlying portions of the northern districts are
more nearly covered with streets and houses, that some of our lowlying
places will be occasionally injured by the flowing back of
the flood waters from the sewers. The planting of trees in our
streets and open spaces, especially on the highest ground, will
assist in keeping the rainfall more equable than it otherwise
would be. The value to this district of Epping Forest is considerable,
as it will assist in remedying the evils which would