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necessary largely to increase the sanitary staff; but that I
thought that instead of at once making the changes, the
need of which I foresaw, it would be well to wait for a
time, and only to determine on their nature and amount
when we should have learnt by experience our actual needs
in this respect.
"Sufficient experience has now accrued; and I feel it
my duty to place my views on the subject before you. We
have always found that, when the routine performance of
sanitary work has been interfered with (as when some of
the Inspectors have been away in holiday time, or on
account of sickness, or when large prevalence of disease
has demanded special attention), the duty which has fallen
into abeyance has been that of systematic house-to-house
inspection. It is this duty which has mainly been neglected
during the last few months; and it is this, and the enforcement
of our regulations in regard to houses let in lodgings
which must continue to be neglected unless a considerable
addition be made to the staff of Inspectors.
"There are between 30,000 and 40,000 houses in the
parish, of which, probably, one half should be inspected
periodically. A few years ago our annual systematic
inspections amounted to about 10,000. During the last
three or four years, however, owing to our increased attention
to drainage matters, the annual number of such inspections
has diminished, and during the last six months
they have been at the rate of less than 5,000, and even these
have been made up largely of inspections of groups of
houses determined by some complaint in regard to one of
them. I think that in a large and populous parish like
P