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6
When we consider the annual increase of population,
this is highly satisfactory to find the Zymotic forms of
disease do not increase in proportion; and had not the
Scarlet Fever epidemic intervened, there would have
been a very great diminution in this preventible class
of diseases.
Systematic House to House Inspections.
The materials accumulated by systematic house to
house inspection are now of great value and interest as
a study of the condition of streets and houses sublet
and occupied by weekly lodgers. The issue of some
thousands of sanitary orders during the last few years,
many of which are for constructive work, must have
had the effect of lessening the discomfort and dangers
to which the working population in these streets are
exposed. The death-rate is however very high in the
tenant house population generally; not from any
neglect of local authority in this Parish, but from causes
inherent in the people themselves. Much time and
zealous effort to train and teach people sanitary and
social economy will have to be spent before they learn
to husband the resources necessary for keeping themselves
in health, strength or comfort. Want of space
for breathing or overcrowding is the worst evil they
have to contend against, and it is the most difficult to
deal with; except, perhaps, intemperance, which too
often acts both as a cause and an aggravation of the
mischief. An average cubic space for each individual
of a family consisting of man, wife, and three to five
children, living in a single room, is in some instances
less than 200 feet, while 400 or 500 are necessary. It
may easily be imagined when the doors and windows
of houses are closed at night, how readily the air is
polluted—even rendered poisonous by rebreathing.