View report page

159
establishment of baths and wash-houses, the erection
of hospitals for infectious diseases, and the closing
of metropolitan burial grounds ; and that, as regards
domestic improvement, this has been mainly in the
houses of the better and middle classes, and in those
occupied by small tradespeople, clerks, and artisans.
Yet even the "rookeries" and the houses occupied
by the poorest have benefitted in no inconsiderable
degree, though they have not benefitted so much as
could be wished, or so much as doubtless was
expected. There are many reasons for this. The
persons concerned are improvident and dirty; they
accumulate all kinds of filth in their holdings; they
stable ponies ana donkeys in their sitting rooms;
they allow trade refuse to decompose in them ; they
break up their dust-bins, cistern covers, and bannisters
for firewood; they sell their drain-traps and
water-fittings as old metal; they block up their
closets and drains with rags and shavings. The
new methods of drainage and water-supply, which
are consequences of our advancing civilisation,
require delicate and costly arrangements to permit
of their working efficiently; but their delicacy and
nicety of detail make them difficult of adaptation to
the poorest property, while their cost in many cases
renders the adoption of the most efficient apparatus