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grown up from an inspection of 3,147 houses in
1853 to an annual average of 17,524 during the last
ten years; and the number of orders issued for
sanitary improvement has risen from 983 in the year
to an average of 3,624. During all this time, too,
there has been a gradual diminution of the number
of houses requiring inspection, but this circumstance
has not, until lately, relieved your officers from any
notable amount of sanitary work; for the act of
demolition, which has reduced the number of lodging-
houses, has necessarily caused an increased overcrowding
of the poor, and thus added to the responsibility
of our labours.
At the time of my appointment in 1855, the work
of inspection was performed by the six Inspectors of
Pavements, who devoted only a small portion of their
time every week to sanitary inspection; and this
condition of things lasted until nearly the close of the
year 1857, when I considered it necessary to have a
systematic weekly inspection of the registered common
lodging-houses of the City. These were the
worst class of dwellings, and were at the time of my
appointment so indecently and unwholesomely overcrowded,
that I felt it to be my duty, after a personal
inspection of them by night as well as by day, to
cause them to be registered under the provisions of
the 10th clause of your Act of 1851, and to be subject
to the rules and regulations which, with your sanction,
I drew up for their government. A special Sanitary