Chapter VII (2)

And the expense to the community has been enormous. Millions upon millions of money have had to be spent to make good--so far as could be made good--the ravages of past neglect and culpable management. Millions upon drainage, upon hospitals, upon houses for the working classes, upon open spaces--tens of millions upon water supply, and most unjustifiable and regrettable of all, millions to compensate slum owners for their iniquities.

And even yet we have not arrived at our goal. What, then, are still the causes of failure? What the impediments? Where the shortcomings?

The failure is in part due to a great omission by Parliament--in part to the non-administration of existing laws by local authorities--in part to a great defect in the system of local government.

Parliament had, most unfortunately, omitted from all its enactments affecting London any provision for the supervision of the great movement in part economic, in part social, which has been going on in London for well-nigh two-thirds of a century--namely, the change of houses inhabited by one family into tenement-houses, or houses inhabited by several families.

That movement with its appalling attendant evils was allowed to go on practically unregulated, uncontrolled, and unsupervised.

The great evil of this movement was, that a house which had been structurally and sanitarily designed for one family was sanitarily unsuited for its altered career as the abode of several families. Nothing was done to obviate this evil. And so these houses became packed with people and families who had to live in one or two rooms in them without the primary necessities of a healthy existence--without ventilation--without an adequate supply of water--without facilities for cooking food--with the scantiest and filthiest sanitary accommodation--had to live under conditions which put a high premium upon dirt and insanitation, and which absolutely invited disease and death.

Even the Sanitary Act of 1866, and its amending Act of 1874, did not deal with this crucial matter; and no legal obligation was created by Parliament to ensure that the houses undergoing such a change should be adapted to their altered circumstances.

The Sanitary Act of 1866 only in part dealt with the evils inherent in such houses. It imposed on the Sanitary Authority the duty of making regulations which prescribed a standard of the air space for each person, and thus made an effort to prevent overcrowding; it imposed upon the "owner" the duty of maintaining a certain standard of cleanliness--the rooms were to be painted or lime-whitened every year--it laid upon the tenants certain duties also as to maintaining cleanliness.

But even this imperfect legislation was completely brought to naught by the opposition of the Vestries and District Boards to such action as would have secured at any rate some degree of decent accommodation in the tenement-houses of London.

By the Public Health Act, 1891, the London County Council was empowered to make bye-laws enforcing a certain standard of sanitary accommodation in them, and did make them. But in other respects nothing was done; and so the process still goes on, large numbers of houses hitherto occupied by one family are passing into the occupation of several families devoid of the primary necessaries of a healthy existence. The great movement has by no means spent its force; for long to come houses will be going through this transition, and until legislation deals definitely with this matter the inevitable evils attendant on the change will continue.

The second main cause of failure lies at the door of the local authorities who would not and did not administer the existing laws.

The local governing authorities are now more active than they have ever been before; the amount of work done in every branch of sanitation is far greater than ever before; the number of Sanitary Inspectors has been increased from 188 in 1893 to 313 in 1904. But the regulations or bye-laws under the Act of 1891 which Parliament had imperatively directed them to make and to use as regarded the tenement-houses in London, are very far from being enforced to the extent they should be.

The total number of houses let in lodgings which were on the various registers in 1905 was 22,257.

With only a few exceptions the Borough Councils, like their predecessors the Vestries, make comparatively little use of this power, though there is a concurrent mass of testimony as to the beneficial results following its use. Stepney, under the inrush of aliens, found the benefit of exercising the power, and heads the list with 2,672 houses on the register. Kensington has 2,107; Westminster 1,641; St. Pancras 2,192; Hammersmith 2,266; and Finsbury 1,169. These amount to 12,047, or 10 per cent. of all the inhabited houses in those six boroughs. In the whole of the rest of London with 451,596 inhabited houses, only 10,207 of the houses let in lodgings are registered: so that only 2-1/4 per cent. of the houses in them, as against 10 per cent. in the others, are registered.

It is manifest, therefore, how imperfectly the greater number of even the present local authorities perform the duty which has been imperatively imposed upon them by Parliament.

The Borough of Shoreditch, for instance, with 22,940 tenements of less than five rooms, of which 6,269 were overcrowded with 35,500 persons living in them, has only 283 of the houses let in lodgings on the register. The Borough of Lambeth with 44,495 tenements of less than five rooms, of which 6,548 were overcrowded with 36,900 people living in them, had only 372 houses on the register. The Borough of Bermondsey with over 25,000 persons living in overcrowded tenements had only 221 houses on the register.

This, as has been explained (see p. 377), is not a matter in which the Central Authority, the London County Council, has any authority to interfere. The Borough Councils are their own masters in this matter, as were their predecessors the Vestries, and the responsibility as to administering or not administering in their areas the Act of Parliament rests entirely with them. The consequences of the non-administration of these bye-laws to the health and physical well-being of great masses of the people are disastrous.

Various legal decisions in recent years have somewhat impeded the effective administration of the bye-laws in this matter, but the real impediment is the dislike to them of the Borough Councils.

The condition of the vast tenement-house population in this great city is of such immeasurable consequence to the community at large that matters can only be allowed to continue in their present most unsatisfactory state at the most dire cost. The sooner it is thoroughly inquired into by Parliament and drastically dealt with the better; great evils will be stayed, great benefits will be secured.

The third principal cause of failure to attain a higher level of the public health in London than at present enjoyed has been the want of a real central Health Authority. The Metropolitan Board of Works was never such. The London County Council is only such in a very limited way. A real central Health Authority for London is an absolute necessity--that is the great moral to be drawn from the history of the last half-century so far as local government in health matters in London is concerned.

Disease recognises no boundaries, and in a great city like London it is essential that in so vital a matter as the public health full authority should, subject to Parliament, be vested in one supreme authority--a central authority which shall secure uniformity of administration; a central authority which shall be able to compel a local authority in London to do that which if it neglects is a danger to the community; a central authority which, in the event of such neglect, shall be authorised itself to undertake that work; a central authority which shall be able to act at once for London as a whole in presence of any sudden or great emergency--that is absolutely essential for the sanitary safety of this great city and of the millions who live in it.

The want of such an authority has throughout the whole sanitary evolution of London been a disaster of the greatest magnitude, and is an ever-present peril to this great metropolis. The existence now of a central popularly elected representative body for the metropolis would render this reform quite a simple matter.

Further measures are also required to aid in the removal of the worst of London evils.

In 1903 a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the means of locomotion and transport in London. It reported in 1905, having done its work more thoroughly than even most Royal Commissions do their work.

A great portion of its report deals directly or indirectly with the sanitary condition of the people of London.

"The question of locomotion," said the Commissioners, "affects the health, comfort, and efficiency for work of the whole community....

"Witnesses who have special knowledge of the subject are of opinion that the remedy for overcrowding is to be found in the removal of the people to outside districts by providing additional facilities for locomotion, and in this opinion we agree....

"We have come to the conclusion that in order to relieve overcrowding means must be provided for taking the population into and out of London, not in one or two directions but in many directions, at rapid speed, frequent intervals, and cheap rates."

To this recommendation of the Commission it should be added that means must be devised for preventing in "outer London" a repetition of those circumstances and conditions of life which, for more than half a century, entailed such sufferings and evils upon the people of London.

* * * * *

In reviewing the principal events, and studying the powerful underlying forces of the great movement of the sanitary evolution of London, the bitter experiences of the time gone by would indeed have been in vain if they did not point the way to an avoidance of past blunders and iniquities, and towards a better and happier future for the people. The lines upon which reform should move gradually become apparent as the events unroll themselves; and the measures now to be taken evolve and shape themselves from the successes and failures of the past.

The reforms just suggested are undoubtedly those which are most imperatively necessary. The whole experience of the past justifies the belief that they would soon work a great change for the better in the physical, mental, and moral conditions of life of large masses of the people of London. And from improved and healthier homes would come to the people increased comforts and happiness, and more physical energy and greater strength to fulfil the duties of their lives, and to meet whatever demands the future may make upon them and upon our nation.

The strength and even the existence of a nation depend upon the health of its masses. The stake at issue is a vital one to people and nation; and now more than ever is it necessary that the health and vigour of our race should be maintained at the highest possible attainable standard.

FOOTNOTES:

[186] Final Report of the School Board for London, p. 326.

[187] See Report of Medical Officer of the late School Board for 1903-4.

[188] Final Report, p. 297.

[189] First Report of Medical Officer for year ended March 25, 1903, p. 24.

[190] Second Annual Report to March 25, 1904.

[191] In the Public Health (London) Act.

[192] The recoupments arising from the sale of surplus lands reduced the actual or net cost to less than £8,000,000.

[193] Here the net cost is estimated to be about £5,500,000.

[194] The International Congress of Hygiene, held in Brussels in 1903, passed a resolution declaring meat to be unfit for human food when it was derived from animals attacked by bacterial anthrax, glanders, rabies, tetanus, tuberculosis, in certain cases, and several other diseases.

[195] See Report of the Medical Officer of Health of the London County Council, 1902, p. 10.

INDEX

ADULTERATION OF FOOD ACT, 1860, 182-4

Aldwych, 413

Allison, Dr., evidence quoted, 28

Alteration of Food and Drink and Drugs Act, 1872, 238

Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act, 1868, 212-3, 254-5, 282

Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act, 1875, 256-8, 264
Amendment Act, 1879, 265, 292-5

Avery Hill, 414

BAKEHOUSES, 171-2, 275, 374, 381-2, 404

Bakehouse Regulation Act, 1863, 183, 275

Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., 396-7

Ball, Decimus, 323

Ballard, Dr., 252

Barnett, Canon, 294

Bateson, Dr. Henry, reports quoted, 150, 286-7

Baths and Wash-houses, 39, 126, 252

Baths and Wash-houses Act, 1846, 39, 252

Battersea, 98, 177, 203, 229, 284, 392

Beaconsfield, Lord, 287

Beale, James, 186

Bedfordbury, 259-60

Bermondsey, 17, 23, 98, 116, 144, 177, 188, 220, 250-1, 300, 309,
332-3, 347-8, 354, 431

Bethnal Green, 46-7, 74, 97, 103, 108, 120, 129, 138, 145, 177,
188, 190, 202, 219, 222, 268, 288, 291, 293, 303, 308-10,
333-4, 353, 364, 375, 383, 386-7, 393

Billingsgate Market, 416

Birth-rate, decline of, 350, 402-3

Bloomsbury, 314

Boundary Street Area, 364

Bow, 393

Bristowe, Dr. J. S., 400

Brockwell Park, 414

Bromley, 159

Building Act, 1844, 30, 164

Burial grounds, 35-7, 54-5, 64, 67, 231, 309-10

Burnett, J., report quoted, 335

Burnham Beeches, 414

CAMBERWELL, 98, 104, 137, 144, 155, 190, 219, 222, 267, 288, 291,
305, 309, 334, 354, 406

Census of 1851, 56, 410
of 1861, 155-7
of 1871, 221-2
of 1881, 288-9
of 1891, 349-52
of 1896, 379
of 1901, 401-2, 422

Central Health Authority needed, 195-6, 277-8, 431-2

Cesspools, 18, 51, 104, 128, 159, 229

Chadwick, Edwin, 47

Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph, 293, 308

Cheap Trains Act, 1863, 362

Chelsea, 98, 141, 197-8, 255, 267, 288, 354

Children's Employment, Commission on, 210-1

Cholera epidemics, of 1832, 2, 46
of 1848, 45-6
of 1849, 46-9, 63
of 1853, 72-5, 164
of 1866, 189-92

Chichester, Bishop of, speech in 1850, 66

"Christopher Court," Whitechapel, 28

"City," the, its commercial character, 7-9
its government, 9, 417
its sanitary condition, 50
its declining population, 94-5, 155, 222, 224, 288, 352, 401-2
construction of business premises, 367, 394
Amalgamation Committee, 396

Clare Market scheme, 364

Clerkenwell, 22, 74, 97, 102-3, 109, 115, 120, 124, 126, 185, 245,
261-2, 288, 303, 307-8, 314, 321, 323, 333, 353, 355

Common lodging houses, 67, 132, 145, 253
erected by L.C.C., 366, 410

Common Lodging Houses Act, 1851, 67, 132

Commons, acquisition of, 206, 282

Compulsory Vaccination Act, 1867, 208

Consumption, 146, 170

Contagious Diseases Animals Act, of 1869, 237
of 1878, 275-6

Coulsdon Common, 414

Cowhouses and dairies, 275, 318

Cremation Act, 1902, 409

Cripplegate, 165

Cross, Sir R. A., 256

Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1890, 344-5

DENSITY OF BUILDING, 25, 28, 98, 203, 329-30

Deptford, 74, 347

Derby, Lord, 165

Dickens, Charles, on burial grounds, 36
speech in 1850, 65

Dilke, Sir Charles, 308

Diphtheria, 146, 386

Diseases Prevention Act, 1848, 79, 152

Diseases Prevention (Metropolis) Act, 1883, 318-9

Disinfection, 194, 248, 252, 358, 385

Dispensaries, 389

District Boards created, 83-9
inefficiency and inactivity, 183-7, 267-73, 301-8, 321-2, 398-9
abolition, 398-9

Drunkenness connected with overcrowding and insanitation, 130,
142-3, 157-8, 176, 263, 391-2

Dunraven, Lord, 336-7

EAST LONDON WATER CO., 106, 191-2

Education (London) Act, 1903, 406, 421

Elementary Education Act, 1870, 219, 346

Epping Forest, 414

FACTORIES, overcrowding in, 113, 173-4, 193, 334-7
Royal Commission of 1876, 274
need of inspection, 373-4

Factory Act of 1864, 183
of 1867, 210-1
of 1878, 274-5
of 1891, 370
of 1901, 403-4

Farr, Dr. W., 189

Fever, prevalence of, 4, 32-4
connection with cholera, 47

Finsbury, 16, 314-5, 423-4, 430

Finsbury Park, 206

Flight, 323-4

Forster, W. E., speech quoted, 242

Fulham, 98, 100-1, 112, 115, 131, 159-61, 166-7, 191, 204, 214,
219, 222, 226, 228, 252, 288, 307, 374, 380, 393, 401-2

GLADSTONE, W. E., 312

Godwin, George, 173, 181

Goulston Street scheme, 293

Grainger, Dr., evidence quoted, 48-9

Granville, Lord, 165

Gray's Inn Road, 295

Greenwich, 17, 74, 98, 101, 124, 222, 309, 332

Grey, Sir G., 70

Griffith, Dr. J., evidence quoted, 21-2

Grosvenor, Lord Robert, 66

HACKNEY, 17, 97, 100, 103, 117, 123, 136, 179, 190, 197-8, 222,
228, 230, 267, 288, 309, 334, 373, 393, 401

Hackney Marsh acquired, 414

Hainault Forest, 414

Hall, Sir Benjamin, 73

Hammersmith, 101, 204, 226, 383, 430

Hampstead, 97, 100, 125, 351, 375

Hampstead Heath acquired, 206

Harcourt, Sir William, 311

Hickson, W. E., evidence quoted, 26

Holborn, 97, 123, 127, 155, 164, 170, 255, 314, 353-4

Hornsey, 351

Hospitals for infectious diseases, 209-10, 283, 318-9, 387-8

Hospitals, voluntary, 390

Houses, defective building of, 227-9, 232, 273

Housing of the Working Classes Act of 1885, 325-6
of 1890, 342, 363-6, 398

Housing of the Working Classes Commission, 317, 319, 321-5

Hunter, Dr., 185-6

IMMIGRATION INTO LONDON, 156, 221, 225-6, 288-91, 336, 349, 402

Infectious and contagious diseases, 194, 208-9, 239-40, 263, 266,
276, 283, 318-9, 343-4, 357, 385-8, 403, 407-8

Infectious Diseases Notification Act, 1889, 342-3

Inspectors of Nuisances, 86, 91, 188-9, 193-4, 307-9, 324-5,
334-5, 358
their insufficient number, 379-80, 382-3

Islington, 97, 99, 108, 120, 127, 155, 177, 180, 188, 201, 222,
224-5, 279-80, 288, 351, 355, 374, 380-1, 392-3, 424

JACOB'S ISLAND, foul water in, 23

Jewish sanitary laws, 143, 146, 149

KENRY, LORD, 371

Kensington, 98-9, 105, 121, 188, 219, 222, 225, 230, 278-9, 288,
355, 375, 383, 430

Kingsway, 413

LABOURING CLASSES LODGING HOUSES ACT of 1851, 69-70, 326
of 1867, 326

Lakeman, 371

Lambeth, 12, 17, 30, 98, 103, 105, 116, 122-4, 155, 188, 203, 222,
251-2, 267, 300, 309, 352, 354-5, 375, 424-5, 431

Lambeth Water Company, 73

_Lancet, The_, description of the Thames, 77

Lankester, Dr., 189

Laundries, public, 126

Lea Conservancy Board, 208

Lewisham, 98, 102, 144

Liddle, Dr. J., 399

Limehouse, 97-8, 111, 120, 163, 188, 251, 258, 279, 393

Little Coram Street, Bloomsbury, 262-3

Local government of the "City," 9
of Greater London, 11-4
lack of central authority, 13
Act passed in 1855, 82

Local Government Board Act, 1871, 232-3, 419

Local Government (England and Wales) Act, 1894, 382

Locomotion, additional facilities needed, 432

London, Bishop of, speech in 1850, 64

London County Council created, 338-9
powers given by Public Health Act, 1891, 359-61
and by Housing Act, 1890, 363-6
constituted education authority, 406-9, 418
summary of its work, 420

London Fever Hospital Report, 1845, 32

London Government Act, 1899, 396-7

London Government Bill, 1884, 311-3

Lynch, Dr. J., 33-4, 261

MARYLEBONE. _See_ St. Marylebone

Measles, 408

Meat, inspection of imported, 318

Medical Officers of Health, their duties, 86, 91, 96
their reports, 92-3
their treatment by local authorities, 189
their labours, 399-400

Metropolis Local Management Act, 1855, 82, 110, 185

Metropolis Turnpike Trusts Act, 1828, 24

Metropolis Water Act, 1852, 71, 160, 191

Metropolitan Asylums Board, 210, 418, 420

Metropolitan Board of Works constituted, 83-5
abolished, 337-41

Metropolitan Building Act of 1844, 24, 76
of 1855, 88, 164, 204, 231

Metropolitan Burials Act, 1852, 55

Metropolitan Gas Act, 1860, 184

Metropolitan Market Act, 1851, 247

Metropolitan Paving Act, 1817, 12, 24

Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867, 208-10

Metropolitan Sanitary Association, 106

Metropolitan Sewers Commission, evidence before, 18-9

Metropolitan Water Amendment Act, 1871, 233-5

Metropolitan Water Board, 405-6, 418, 420

Middlemen, 323-4

Midwives Act, 1902, 409

Mile-End-Old-Town, 97, 99, 131, 163, 166, 227, 278, 288, 309,
333, 347, 383

Milk trade, 275, 318

Millbank estate, 366

"Model dwellings," 368-70

Morpeth, Lord, 43-4

Mortality, in the fifties, 120-1, 129-30, 144-5, 148, 150
in the sixties, 153, 156, 176-8, 191, 219-20, 223
in the seventies, 263, 278-81, 283
in the eighties, 292, 346-8
in the nineties, 350-1, 364, 392-3, 402

Mortuaries, 252, 358

Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, 78

Municipal Councils, created, 397-8, 417
their work, 421

Munro, J., 400

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING SOCIAL SCIENCE, 181

New Oxford Street formed, 29

New River Company, 20

Newington, 12, 98, 101, 115, 122, 124, 144, 155, 185, 190, 214,
220, 224, 248, 250, 285, 309, 347, 354, 376

Notting Dale, 121, 177

Noxious trades, 37-8, 53-4, 87, 114-7, 145-8, 246-7, 252, 415

Nuisances Act, 1846, 39-40, 45

Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act, 1855, 82-3, 86,
117, 415

OVERCROWDING, in the forties, 29-34
in the fifties, 55-6, 107-14, 119, 127, 133-4, 145
legislation against, 87, 147-9, 193-4, 197
in the sixties, 165-77, 198-200, 202-3
in the seventies, 224-5, 243-6
in the eighties, 313-6, 332-3
in the nineties, 354-6, 371, 375-6
in 1901, 422-6

PADDINGTON, 98, 100, 102, 123, 155, 163, 168, 180-1, 184, 188,
201, 203-4, 220, 222, 224, 226, 248-9, 252, 279, 288, 290,
309, 376, 407-8, 425-6

Palmerston, Lord, 75

Parks and recreation grounds, 122, 206, 282, 414

Pauperism, 139

Paving boards in middle of nineteenth century, 12

Peabody Trustees, 265, 296

Pear Tree Court, Clerkenwell, 261

Pennethorne, J., 28

Phillips, J., 19

Physical deterioration, 426-7

Plumstead, 98, 267

Poor Law Act of 1879, 283
of 1889, 344

Poor Law Guardians, 407

Poplar, 97, 120, 123, 126, 155, 190, 199, 222, 227, 230, 254,
279, 284, 288, 300, 309, 331, 376, 393

Population, growth of, 9-10, 80, 155-7, 221-5, 288-9, 349-52,
401-2, 410

Port of London Sanitary Authority, 239-41, 283, 317-8, 416

Printing works, 172-3

Privy Council, medical department of, 152, 171

Public Health Act of 1848, 51-2, 79
of 1858, 152

Public Health (London) Act, 1891, 356-60, 385, 408, 412-3,
415-6, 429-30

Purvis, W., 237-8

REDESDALE, LORD, 165

Registrar-General's Report after census of 1861, 154

Rendell, Dr. William, 142-50, 175, 186-7, 189

Ritchie, C. T., 338, 359

Rodwell, Hunter, 271

Rosebery, Earl of, 341

Rotherhithe, 17, 36, 74, 98, 101, 105, 108, 114, 116, 117, 144,
177, 206, 220, 252, 280-1, 333-4

Ross, 323

Russell, Lord John, 66

Russell Court, Drury Lane, burial ground in, 36

ST. GEORGE, Hanover Square, 98, 137, 188, 212, 288, 351

St. George-in-the-East, 102-3, 106, 120, 233, 253, 278, 288, 303,
352-4, 391, 393

St. Giles', 28, 68, 97, 99, 100, 105, 108-10, 113, 124, 130, 139,
168, 176, 178, 191, 199-200, 224, 250, 252, 255, 260, 262-3,
305, 313-4, 375-6

St. James', Westminster, 97-8, 102, 109, 125, 130, 155, 170, 179,
189-90, 222-3, 249-52, 256, 272, 288, 290, 352, 369, 394

St. Luke, 97, 108, 219, 231, 255, 293, 314, 334, 353, 355, 364, 368

St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 97, 102, 129, 155, 161, 214, 352

St. Marylebone, 30, 97, 100, 105, 124, 181, 188, 222, 225, 232, 250,
280, 288, 299, 309, 354, 369, 374

St. Pancras, 97, 108, 115, 125-6, 128-9, 132, 155, 164, 169, 175,
188, 256, 268, 273, 279, 299, 304, 309, 348, 353, 367, 424,
430

Salisbury, Marquess of, 317, 322, 325-6

Sandhurst, Lord, 337

Sanitary Act, 1866, 193, 199-202, 217-8, 254, 266, 300, 302, 324, 429

Sanitary Law Amendment Act, 1874, 266, 305, 429

Scarlet fever, 249, 386, 415

Schools, overcrowding in, 113-4, 174, 244-6
defective drainage in, 421-2

School Board for London, 283-4, 292, 313-5, 406-7, 418

Scrofula, 58, 170

Sewers, early statutes relating to, 14
glaring inefficiency in the forties, 15-7
in the City in the fifties, 50-1, 60
plan adopted by the M.B.W., 90-1
medical officers' reports in 1856, 100-3
attention paid by Vestries and District Boards, 123, 249-51
M.B.W.'s scheme carried out, 158-9, 281, 411
L.C.C.'s report, 411-2

Sewers, Commissioners of, before Act of 1848, their authority, 9,
11, 15
their incapacity, 15-7
after Act of 1848, 41-2
superseded, 84

Shaftesbury (Ashley), Lord, 32, 47, 64, 66, 165, 174, 176, 274,
307, 366
carries Act to regulate common lodging houses, 67-8
Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Act, 69

Shops, 172

Shoreditch, 37, 97, 105, 111-2, 120, 166, 188, 228, 251, 267, 288,
309, 353, 355, 368, 380-1, 393, 425, 430

Simon, Dr. John, 50-62, 120, 171, 192, 215-7, 248, 286

Simpson, W., 29

Slaughter-houses, 247

Smallpox, 38-9, 146, 150, 208, 235-6, 269, 319, 386, 403

Smith, Dr. Southwood, 4, 6, 25-6, 151

Smithfield Market, 416

Society for Establishing Public Baths and Washhouses, 126

Society for Improving the Condition of the Working Classes, 70

Soho, 391

Southwark, 17, 98, 111, 120, 128, 131, 135-6
parish of St. George-the-Martyr described, 142-52, 167, 189,
214-5, 222, 224, 228, 230, 267, 279, 284, 305-6, 334, 347,
354, 364, 369, 374, 375, 393, 400, 424

Southwark Water Company, 21, 73, 192

Spitalfields, 28, 161, 245-6, 253

Stanley, Lyulph, 295

Stepney, 401, 424-5, 430

Strand, 97, 100, 110, 112-3, 115, 117, 123, 128, 133, 140, 176,
212, 223-4, 259, 288-90, 347, 352, 364, 392

Street improvements, 29, 205-6, 413-4

Sutherland, Dr., 75

Sweating, Select Committee on, 337, 370-2

TENEMENT HOUSES, 313-6, 353-6, 358, 375, 422-5, 428-31
_See_ also "Overcrowding"

Thames, the, sewers discharged into, 15-6, 21
source of water supply, 21-2
_The Lancet's_ description, 77
a Medical Officer's words in 1858, 117-8
Embankment constructed, 207, 282
Thames Purification Act passed, 207-8
scope of Conservancy Board extended, 208
Port of London regulations, 239-41, 283
new treatment of sewage adopted, 332

Torrens, Mr., 213

Towns Improvement Act, 1847, 79

Tramways Act, 1870, 219

Tremenheere, H. S., 171

Typhus, prevalence of in 1838, 4
in 1847, 43
in the "City" in the fifties, 58, 112, 147

VACCINATION ACT OF 1836, 208
of 1871, 237

Vestries created, 83-9
inefficiency and inaction, 183-7, 266-73, 301-8, 321-2, 398-9
abolition, 398-9

Victoria sewer, 76

Vinen, Dr. N., 400

Vulliamy, G., 229

WALES, THE PRINCE OF (now King Edward VII.), 317, 364

Wandsworth, 98, 100, 124, 155, 177, 219, 222, 228, 230, 250, 279,
289, 402

Water supply, disgraceful condition of, 20-3, 104-7, 160-2, 191-2
for the "City," 51-2
Act of Reform passed in 1852, 71
Act of 1871, 233-5
Act of 1887, 331
Royal Commission of 1892-3, 383-4
Act of 1902, 405-6
general survey, 412-3

Waterlow Park, 414

Webber Row scheme, 364

Westminster (_see_ also St. James), 16, 97-8, 108, 110, 115,
126, 161, 167, 177, 201, 222, 288, 300, 303, 346, 375, 377,
430

Whitechapel, 33, 97, 99, 103-4, 114, 117, 121, 126-7, 130-1, 153,
160-1, 166, 168-9, 178, 200-1, 219, 229, 231, 243, 245-6,
253, 278, 288, 290, 293-5, 353, 368, 391-2, 399

Williams, T. Marchant, 313-6

Window tax, 26

Woolwich, 98, 332

Workhouses and infirmaries, 209, 389-90

Workmen's trains, 296-7

Workshop Regulation Act, 1867, 211-2

ZYMOTIC DISEASES, 42-3, 118, 131, 163, 170, 260-1

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Minor typographical errors have been corrected but inconsistent accents and punctuation are as in the original text unless noted below. Archaic spellings have been left unchanged.

* CORRECTIONS TO THE ORIGINAL TEXT

The following misprints and other errors have been corrected:

Page 42 - the text "was it a" changed to "it was a" ("but none the
less it was a forward step towards a sounder and wiser system of
government").

Page 96 - the text "it amounted it" changed to "it amounted to" ("And
that is what, undoubtedly, it amounted to").

Page 121 - "61·3 of the total deaths." changed to "61·3 per cent. of
the total deaths."

Page 145 - the text "illness resulting difficult of cure" changed to
"illness resulting in difficulty of cure" ("each from illness
resulting in difficulty of cure, constantly recurring.").

Page 199 - the text "precisely the powers which not last year only,"
changed to "precisely the powers which, not last year only,"
("Section 35 gives precisely the powers which, not last year only,
but every year since the constitution of the Board, the Medical
Officer has demanded").

Page 203 - sentence changed from

"And another example near Paddington Road--where 275 houses had been
built, and the population was 493 to the acre; showing"

to read

"And another example near Paddington Road, where 275 houses had been
built, and the population was 493 to the acre, showing--"

Page 207 - the text "acccess of energy" changed to "excess of energy"
("The visitation of cholera was doubtless in the main accountable for
the excess of energy displayed by Parliament about this period").

Page 219 - comma added after "50 per cent." ("the high rate, nearly
50 per cent., of infantile mortality").

Page 246 - the text "in the yards of some of them slaughter-houses"
changed to "in the yards of some of them were slaughter-houses"
("indeed, in the yards of some of them were slaughter-houses, with
all their unpleasant concomitants.").

Page 304 - the text "for there many" changed to "for there were many"
("for there were many and considerable advantages in this form of
procedure").

Page 314 - the text "was 382" changed to "as 382" ("He gave the number
of families ... residing in more than two rooms as 382, ....").

Page 353 - "inhabitating" changed to "inhabiting" ("number of persons
inhabiting each").

Page 357 - "prejudical" changed to "prejudicial" ("injurious or
prejudicial to health").

Page 375 - the text "76·1 of the population" changed to "76·1 per cent.
of the population" ('In Bethnal Green (1894), "76·1 per cent. of the
population lived in tenements of less than five rooms. No houses had
been registered."').

* OTHER CHANGES AND NOTES

The following changes to the original text have been made for clarity or consistency:

In CHAPTER I, the section numbers have been prefixed with the words "CHAPTER I, PART" for clarity. This means that the headings of the sections in this chapter are now--

CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I, PART II
CHAPTER I, PART III
CHAPTER I, PART IV