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59
of the Working Classes Act, 1890, particulars of which may be found
in my Annual Reports for these years; but the importance of controlling
overcrowding has not received all the attention which we
shall see it deserves, when we consider some of its results. Something,
however, has been done in Hackney in registering a certain
number of tenement dwellings under the Bye-laws for houses let in
lodgings, and causing these to be periodically inspected.
It is well known that overcrowding has a general prejudicial effect
upon the constitution, rendering it more vulnerable to the attacks of
disease.
It has also been proved by Dr. Shirley Murphy, Medical Officer of
Health of the London County Council, in his Report for the year
1898, that the mortality from Phthisis or Consumption rises and falls
with the degree of overcrowding; and this is also the case with the
general death-rate. We know, besides, that the more densely
populated any area, the more danger there is of infectious disease
spreading, with more fatal effect. That overcrowding tends also to
lower the standard of morals, public and domestic, must not be
forgotten.
These results surely justify the most strenuous efforts and sacrifices
being made to diminish overcrowding.
The reason why so much progress has not been made in the
Metropolis in dealing with overcrowding lies in its inherent difficulties.
It is not so easily ascertained as structural sanitary defects; its full
extent is not to be measured without a house to house visitation;
and the causes leading up to it are quite different and of a social
character. The acquisition of "proper" housing accommodation is
more or less a question of means. To the skilled artizan and better
classes this accommodation is attainable without much difficulty; but
as we approach the lower classes the difficulties increase, until, for the
most helpless class, housing has to be provided by the Poor Law in
the form of parochial relief.