View report page

54
As to how much each of these conditions contributes towards
the increased infantile death-rate in Hackney Wick, it is impossible
for me to state; but we do know that wherever the first condition
of things exist, i.e., a labouring population amongst whom poverty
is rife, with overcrowding and other consequences, there the infantile
death rate will be found high. This is well known and exemplified
in all manufacturing 'districts.
Further!, populations living on made soils have been proved to
suffer from a higher infant death-rate than those living on other soils.
This was notably the case with certain parts of Liverpool. Indeed
the harmfulness of such soils for building sites needs no proof at the
present day. It is recognised in the following bye-law made by the
London County Council, under the Building Acts:
FOUNDATIONS AND SITES OF BUILDINGS.
No house, building, or other erection shall be erected upon
any site or portion of any site which shall have
been filled up or covered with any material impregnated
or mixed with any fœcal, animal or vegetable
matter, or which shall have been filled up or covered with
dust, or slop, or other refuse, or in or upon which any such
matter or refuse shall have been deposited, unless and until
such matter or refuse shall have been properly removed, by
excavation or otherwise from such site. Any holes caused by
such excavation, must, if not used for a basement or cellar,
bo filled in with hard brick or dry rubbish, or concrete, or other
suitable material to be approved by the District Surveyor.
The site of every house or building shall be covered with a
layer of good concrete, at least six inches thick and smoothed
on the upper surface.
Lastlv, that sewers laid with an insufficient gradient and subject
to overflowing and other effects noted above, are injurious to
the health of persons in their neighbourhood, I have ample proof.
At this point the question rightly comes in: Is there any
practical remedy for the evils existing at Hackney Wick? Those
arising from the social condition of the Wick people can only be
removed by the diminution of poverty and the spread of education.