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a proportion only of which is shown by the death-rate, by attention to the conditions
under which they work, as well as to the sanitary state of their dwellings. Want of
light and air in workshops and factories is quite as serious a matter as it is
in respect to inhabited houses, for although in the latter you have the children, who are
readily affected by the absence of these essentials, yet in the workshops are the skilled
artizans, upon whom many families depend, and whose illness is a loss to the wealth of
the district and of the nation.
Necessity for
Wider Streets.
I have been led to make these remarks on account of the change which is being
effected in the more central part of the parish, and to which I have already alluded.
Houses for the most part of two, or at most three floors, are being demolished, and in
their place huge blocks of high warehouses and factories are being substituted; streets
which were none too wide for the height of the former buildings, now appear like
narrow lanes, and access of light and movement of air are, to a great extent, prevented.
It is really necessary that persons should not be permitted to erect high buildings of
this description without making, at the same time, some increase in the width of the street
commensurate with the height of the buildings. And for the above reasons, as well as
in case of fire, the extent of these blocks ought to be limited in area by streets
intersecting them at regular intervals.
Tubercular
Diseases.
ZYMOTIC DISEASES.
Nearly one-third of the total deaths, viz.:—993 deaths resulted from diseases of an
infectious or contagious character; of this number, 412 (13.5 percent. of the total
deaths) were due to Consumption of the Lungs, or other forms of Tuberculosis; in
London the average is 13.29 percent. The prevalence of tubercular disease to such
an extent is indicative of defects in the sanitary and social conditions under which the
inhabitants of many districts of the Metropolis work and live. Many factors are
concerned in the production of this disease, as want of pure air and sunlight, sedentary
and other occupations in badly ventilated workshops and rooms, overcrowding,
intemperance, dampness of houses, imperfect paving of yards and streets, which are
thus unable to be properly cleansed; and in children, probably the use of unboiled
milk, derived from tuberculous cows. Many of these defects are to be found in this
parish. To obviate the dampness of the houses, which plays an important part
in the production and aggravation of many diseases, and which exists in many
houses from original defective construction, your sanitary staff have for a number of years
endeavoured, and to a large extent successfully, to obtain the removal of the causes by
such means as the formation of dry areas, the paving of the forecourts and back
yards, &c.; but in this particular, as in many other matters relating to house
construction, it is now imperative that the Building Acts be so amended as to give
Local Authorities the power to prevent houses being built without proper consideration
being given to sanitary requirements.
Influenza.—During 1891, 63 persons died from Influenza, but many deaths
ascribed to Pneumonia and other complaints should no doubt be attributed to Influenza.
It is well known that in poorer neighbourhoods persons attacked by any disease do not