View report page

29
regulations under the Sanitary Act, as to the requisite cubical
space for each resident, are as far as possible strictly carried out.
The Inspectors make a return for each house, as to the condition
of each room, and of the staircases and passages; the state of
the roof, whether watertight or not; as to the drainage of the
water closet, yard, and premises generally; as to the water supply
and apparatus; the paving of the yard; the state of the dust
bin, and any other matter requiring notice. Amongst these
6104 houses there were found 2403 which were defective as
regards one or more sanitary necessities, or which were so dirty
or dilapidated as to be injurious to health. This, which is about
the proportion found in these houses every year, shows the
necessity for a regular annual house to house inspection, as complaints
are rarely received except as regards choked or defective
drains, or accumulations of stable manure, deposits of offensive
matters, or filthy urinals. The total number of complaints
as to nuisances received during the year was 587, which gave
only about one tenth part of the total number of nuisances abated
in 187S, which I consider to be decidedly satisfactory.
The number of houses reported to me as having had cases
of infectious diseases therein was 769, of which 433 happened
amongst the 6104 houses regularly visited every year, and 336
in houses of a better class. There were 326 houses in which
small pox occurred against 670 in 1877 ; 204 where scarlet fever
appeared; 76 in which typhoid fever was reported, (some of
them were not enteric but irritative fever) ; 69 where there was
simple continued fever; and 14 diphtheria. The largest number
of small pox cases, in proportion to the number of houses,
occurred in Nesbitt Street, Homerton, and Victoria Road,
Hackney Wick.
The meteorology of the year was somewhat unusual, in
consequence of the high temperature in nearly all the months
except November and December, when the weather was unusually
cold. In January and February the temperature was more than
deg. Fahr. in excess of the mean; was also in excess by more