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lation of the houses; for the pores of the walls being choked with
vapour, the quantity of air passing through the wall must have been
diminished. Thus, the inhabitants were, to a certain extent, deprived
of one of the safest means of ventilation. The circulation through the
walls is one of the safest because the air is admitted in such minute
and infinite streams, it causes no sensible draughts, and the air may be,
to some extent, warmed and filtered as it passes through the wall. But,
for this purpose of ventilation, the wall must be kept dry, and the
material of the wall, as far as practicable, should be sound, whereas, in
the defective houses referred to in the Inspector's Report, the wood
was decomposing, and the plaster cracking, falling from the laths,
and very dirty; there were in many houses no ventilators in the
walls beneath the basement floors; and in many with ventilators, the
joists were resting on the ground and the space between the joists, to a
great extent, filled up with earth and dust. In many houses, however,
air was admitted abundantly in other ways; the windows were so loose
and broken,—the doors dilapidated, the walls of some cracked,—these
inlets, together with the drawing influence of the chimney shafts, made
many of the small rooms very draughty; and in winter the draughts
were so chilling in some small houses, that the inhabitants pasted
paper over the crevices of the window and stopped up the chimney
shafts. It needs no words of mine to describe the evils following—
they were evidenced by the warm, moist, foetid atmosphere of
the rooms.
It might here be asked, how is it that the Vestry has not ordered
such houses to be closed as unfit for human habitation ? Many such
dirty, dilapidated houses have been closed by the Vestry's orders, and
not a few others are about to be closed and demolished.
A great many other houses have been repaired and cleansed
throughout, ventilation provided under the floors, by ventilators inserted
in the walls, and a space of not less than six inches provided
under the joists ; the yards paved with cement, concrete or York stone;
and the closet accommodation improved and the water supply also. But
the Sanitary Authorities, I need hardly say, have experienced great
difficulties in their efforts to secure better dwellings for the