Chapter XXXII: Appendix (22)

On a full examination of the duties which are suggested for a district physician, or officer of public health, that which will appear to be most serious is not the extent of new duties suggested, but the extent of the neglect of duties existing. The wants, however, which it is a duty to represent and repeat, as the most immediate and pressing, for the relief of the labouring population, are those of drainage, cleansing, and the exercise of the business of an engineer, connected with commissions of sewers, to which the services of a board of health would be auxiliary. The business of a district physician connects him more immediately with the boards of guardians, which, as having the distribution of medical relief, and the services of medical officers, I would submit, maybe made, with additional aid, to do more than can be done by any local boards of health of the description given, separated from any executive authority or self-acting means of bringing information before them.

I have submitted the chief grounds on which it appears to me that whatever additional force may be needed for the protection of the public health it would everywhere be obtained more economically with unity, and efficiency, and promptitude, by a single securely-qualified and well-appointed responsible local officer than by any new establishment applied in the creation of new local boards. Including, as sanitary measures, those for drainage and cleansing, and supplies of water as well as medical appliances, I would cite the remarks on provisions for the protection of the public health, made by Dr. Wilson at the conclusion of a report on the sanitary condition of the labouring population of Kelso. After having noted some particular improvements which had taken place, as it were, by chance, and independently of any particular aids of science directed to their furtherance, he remarks that “it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that much more might still be accomplished, could we be induced, to profit by a gradually extending knowledge, so as to found upon it a more wisely directed practice. When man shall be brought to acknowledge (as truth must finally constrain him to acknowledge) that it is by his own hand, through his neglect of a few obvious rules, that the seeds of disease are most lavishly sown within his frame, and diffused over communities; when he shall have required of medical science to occupy itself rather with the prevention of maladies than with their cure; when governments shall be induced to consider the preservation of a nation’s health an object as important as the promotion of its commerce or the maintenance of its conquests, we may hope then to see the approach of those times when, after a life spent almost without sickness, we shall close the term of an unharassed existence by a peaceful euthanasia.”

VIII.—COMMON LODGING-HOUSES.

A town may be highly advanced in its own internal administration, its general drainage, and its arrangements for house and street-cleansing may be perfect, and they may be in complete action, and yet if the police of the common lodging-houses be neglected, it will be liable to the continued importation, if not the generation, of epidemic disease by the vagrant population who frequent them. I have reserved the evidence respecting them in order to submit it for separate considerations, because they may apparently be better considered independently of the administrative arrangements which affect the resident population of the labouring classes.

From almost every town from whence sanitary reports have been received that have been the results of careful examinations, the common lodging-houses are pointed out as _foci_ of contagious disease within the district. These houses are stages for the various orders of tramps and mendicants who traverse the country from one end to the other, and spread physical pestilence, as well as moral depravation. The evidence everywhere received distinguishes them prominently as the subjects of immediate and decidedly strong legislative interference for the public protection.

The following extract from the Report of _Mr. E. W. Baines_, the medical officer of the Barnet union, is submitted as an example of the information received respecting them from the rural unions:

“The lodging-houses for trampers are a prolific source of disease, and
productive of enormous expense to the parish in which they may be
situate; from one I have within this week sent into the union
workhouse six cases, namely, two of fever, three of itch and
destitution, and one of inflammatory dropsy. These unhappy beings are
boarded and bedded in an atmosphere of gin, brimstone, onions, and
disease, until their last penny be spent, and their clothes pledged to
the keeper of the house, when they are kicked out and left to the
mercy of the relieving officer.”

The committee of physicians and surgeons, who have made a sanitary report on the condition of the labouring population in Birmingham, give the following account of the lodging-houses in that town:—

“Lodging-houses for the lowest class of persons abound in Birmingham.
They principally exist near the centre of the town, many of them in
courts; but great numbers of front houses, in some of the old streets,
are entirely occupied as lodging-houses. They are generally in a very
filthy condition; and, being the resort of the most abandoned
characters, they are sources of extreme misery and vice. These houses
may be divided into three kinds,—mendicants’ lodging-house,
lodging-houses where Irish resort, and houses in which prostitutes
live, or which they frequent.

“We find it stated in Mr. Burgess’s return, that in 47 of these the
sexes indiscriminately sleep together. In the day time the doors of
these houses are generally thronged with dirty, half-dressed women and
children; and if visited in an evening, the inmates are found to be
eating, drinking, and smoking. Such houses are, for the most part,
occupied by beggars and trampers, but many of them are the resort of
thieves. Some idea may be formed of the description of persons who
frequent some of these abodes, by stating that in two of them, one of
which was situate in John-street and the other in Thomas-street, a
chain, fastened at one end by a staple and at the other secured by a
padlock, was placed on the outside of the door, at the foot of the
staircase which led to the sleeping apartments. Upon asking the
mistress of the house for what purpose that was required, she stated
that she employed it to lock in the lodgers until she released them in
the morning, as they would otherwise decamp, and take away whatever
furniture or moveables they could carry with them. Some of these
houses are occupied exclusively by foreigners. In a court in
Park-street we visited one which was inhabited by Italians, men and
women, with their stock of musical instruments, monkeys, and other
small animals. We are informed that there is another Italian
lodging-house in Lichfield-street, as well as one which is frequented
only by the Flemish or German broom-girls.”

In whatever part of the kingdom these receptacles are examined they exhibit common characteristics. _Dr. Jenks_, in his report on the sanitary condition of the labouring classes in Brighton, gives the following account of the lodging-houses:—

“Nottingham-street is the well-known haunt of tramps and beggars;
Egremont-street of the lowest prostitutes and thieves. Both streets
are on elevated ground, with good surface drainage, sufficiently wide
and commodious, and might easily be preserved in a decent state; but
all manner of disgusting refuse is thrown out of doors, and but seldom
removed by the scavengers. In Nottingham-street there are eight or
nine lodging-houses. Lodging-keepers have commonly three or four
houses, for each of which they pay 2_s._ 6_d._ per week. The following
is a description of one of them, and may serve as an _instar
omnium_:—The keeper of the lodging-house rented four of these small
tenements. One room, common to the whole of the inmates, who amounted
to 30, including the children, served both as kitchen and
sitting-room. This room was crowded when I visited it in company with
the chief police-officer, Mr. Solomons, with not less than 17 people
covered with filth and rags. In the largest of the sleeping-rooms, 16
feet by 10 feet, by 7 feet high, there were six beds, five on
bedsteads and one on the floor, to accommodate twelve people of both
sexes, besides children. Each person paid 3_d._ per night. Those who
could afford more could be accommodated with a small room with one
bed. * * * In a word, the streets in this neighbourhood have for many
years been an intolerable nuisance to the town at large. They are the
resort of tramps, begging impostors, thieves, and prostitutes of the
lowest description, who daily and nightly take their rounds through
the town.”

The following account of the lodging-houses in Manchester is from the report of _Dr. Baron Howard_:—

“The pernicious effects resulting from the vitiation of the atmosphere
by the congregation of many persons in a confined space are lamentably
illustrated in the common _lodging-houses_ of the poor; the crowded,
dirty, and ill-ventilated state of which is, I conceive, without doubt
one of the most prolific sources of fever in Manchester. To those who
have not visited them, no description can convey anything like an
accurate idea of the abominable state of these dens of filth, disease,
and wretchedness.

“The great prevalence of fever in these houses during the severe
epidemic of 1837–38 attracted the especial notice of the Board of the
House of Recovery, who passed and transmitted the following resolution
to the churchwardens on the 3d of January, 1838:—‘It appearing that a
great number of cases of fever originates in the common lodging-houses
of the poor of the town, the Board begs to suggest to the
churchwardens and sidesmen the desirableness of appointing proper
persons to inspect the same, in order to prevent, as far as possible,
by cleanliness and ventilation, the increase and spread of this
malady.’ In consequence of this suggestion the parochial authorities
did immediately cause some of the most filthy of these establishments
to be cleansed and whitewashed; but it is evident that temporary
exertions of this kind, however praiseworthy, are quite inadequate to
effect much permanent improvement.

“In some of these houses as many as six or eight beds are contained in
a single room; in others, where the rooms are smaller, the number is
necessarily less; but it seems to be the invariable practice in these
‘keepers of fever beds,’ as the proprietors were styled by Dr.
Ferriar, to cram as many beds into each room as it can possibly be
made to hold; and they are often placed so close to each other that
there is scarcely room to pass between them. The scene which these
places present at night is one of the most lamentable description; the
crowded state of the beds, filled promiscuously with men, women, and
children; the floor covered over with the filthy and ragged clothes
they have just put off, and with their various bundles and packages,
containing all the property they possess, mark the depraved and
blunted state of their feelings, and the moral and social disorder
which exists. The suffocating stench and heat of the atmosphere are
almost intolerable to a person coming from the open air, and plainly
indicate its insalubrity. Even if the place be inspected during the
day, the state of things is not much better. Several persons will very
commonly be found in bed; one is probably sick, a second is perhaps
sleeping away the effects of the previous night’s debauch, while
another is possibly dozing away his time because he has no employment,
or is taking his rest now because he obtains his living by some night
work. In consequence of this occupation of the room during the day,
the windows are kept constantly closed, ventilation is entirely
neglected, and the vitiated atmosphere is ever ready to communicate
its poisonous influence to the first fresh comer whom habit has not
yet rendered insensible to its effects, an exemption which seems to be
in some degree acquired by habitual exposure, and which accounts for
the immunity frequently enjoyed by the keepers themselves of these
houses, whilst their lodgers are attacked in succession. This
circumstance, which was particularly noticed by Dr. Ferriar, I have
often observed. Where cellars are occupied as lodging-houses, the back
room is generally used as the sleeping apartment; and as this has
often no window, and can only receive air and light through the door
opening into the front room, the utter impossibility of ventilation
renders the ravages of infectious fevers particularly destructive when
they once find entrance.

“The beds and bedding, being seldom washed or changed, are generally
in the most filthy condition, and consisting usually of those porous
materials to which contagious vapours are especially liable to attach
themselves, the danger of sleeping in them may be well conceived. Even
if a bed has been occupied by a fever patient who has died, or been
removed, it is often immediately used by fresh lodgers, without having
undergone any purification.

“The disgraceful state of these lodging-houses has been dwelt upon at
some length, because I consider their evils of a most serious and
extensive nature, and I feel quite satisfied they are the most
malignant _foci_ of infectious fevers in Manchester. Indeed it is my
decided opinion that the vitiation of the atmosphere by the living is
much more injurious to the constitution than its impregnation with the
effluvia from dead organic matter; and certainly all I have observed
in Manchester induces me to consider the ‘human miasms’ generated in
overcrowded and ill-ventilated rooms as a far more frequent and
efficient cause of fever than the malaria arising from collections of
refuse and want of drainage. I have been led to this conclusion from
having remarked that fever has generally prevailed more extensively in
those houses where the greatest numbers were crowded together, and
where ventilation was most deficient, although the streets in which
they are situated maybe well paved, drained, and tolerably free from
filth, than in those where there was less crowding, notwithstanding
their location in the midst of nuisances giving rise to malaria. This
inference is also supported by the fact of the higher relative
proportion of fever to other diseases which has been shown to exist in
the collegiate church district, where the number of crowded
lodging-houses and confined courts, the closely compacted state of the
buildings, the narrowness of the streets, and consequent density of
the population and absence of ventilations, are most remarkable.”

_Mr. John Rayner_, medical officer of the Stockport union, gives the following account of the lodging-houses in that town:—

“The lodging-houses in these districts, which are principally occupied
by the Irish labourers, are for the most part very much crowded, and
are in a remarkably filthy states. The beds and bedding are not only
loathsome to the sight but are extremely offensive to the smell, and
are so closely packed that several families may occupy the same room,
each bed containing several persons. In such places the married and
single often repose together, and the beds are so arranged, that in
some instances there is not room for a person to walk between them. I
have seen seven persons in the same bed, and last week removed to the
infirmary a case of rheumatic fever, with translation of the disease
to the heart, from a bed which every night contains _eight_ persons. I
have generally found that the lower order of Irish labourers occupy
the most filthy districts, and that wherever they _colonize_, misery
and wretchedness is sure to abound. They are the most common
applicants for medical relief at our charity.”

“I lately had a case of inflammation of the absorbments of the legs,
from a trifling injury to the foot, in an Irish boy, who was living in
a dark, damp cellar, about four yards square, in which were two beds.
The height of the ceiling was not more than six feet, and yet _seven_
persons laid in it, together with a few rabbits. One of the beds had
to be removed from the wall on account of its extreme dampness, and so
dark was the dwelling at mid-day, that I had to make use of a candle
whilst inspecting him.”

The following is the description of the lodging-houses at the next stage, by the relieving officer of the Macclesfield union:—

_Mr. James Bland_, medical officer of the Macclesfield union,—

“I beg to observe that the lodging-houses are a fruitful source of
fever. The persons renting these tenements showed greater resistance
than others in having their houses properly whitewashed at the time
the epidemic cholera appeared. The vagrants who visit these houses are
frequently attacked with fever: exposed during the day to the
inclemency of the seasons, with their imperfect covering, ragged
clothes, and naked feet, at night thrust into a room perhaps of 16 or
20 square yards, having perhaps five or six beds and three individuals
in a bed, married and single, male and female, to all appearance
indiscriminately lodged. When a case of illness occurs, the
lodging-house keeper is most importunate and clamorous in demanding
relief from the town; and when obtained, it is quite a question
whether it will really be applied to the wants of the sufferer. I have
never any confidence that the remedies given will be administered to
the patient.”

The further stages of the lodging-houses on the northern roads are thus described in the reports:—

_Mr. Nicholas Oliver_, the medical officer of Durham, thus describes the lodging-houses in that town:—

“One fruitful source of generating and propagating contagious diseases
is to be found in those common lodging-houses where vagrants and
mendicants, or any one whatever, whether healthy or diseased, are for
a trifling sum provided with lodgings. I have known 40 persons half
clothed, lodged in one of those wretched dwellings, three or four
lying in one bed upon straw, and only a single counterpane to cover
them, which is never changed. Excrementitious matter was allowed to
accumulate and be about the rooms in all directions, the stench being
most revolting. In the beginning of summer fever of a typhoid type
occurred in this house and affected a number of the inmates, but being
in the other district, they came under the care of the other medical
attendant.”

The medical officer of the Teesdale union gives the following description of the houses in that stage:—

“In this court there are eight common lodging-houses, and the number
of lodgers sometimes amounts to 100; at this time it is 50: eight or
ten sleeping in a room, upon the most unwholesome straw. The buildings
are in general good; but the wretched and filthy state of the houses
can scarcely be conceived. From this part many of our applications
arise. It is, indeed, a source of physical and moral disease.”

_Mr. Gilbert Ward_, the medical officer of the Tynemouth union, describes the lodging-houses there as sources of disease, of which one example may suffice:—

“In a low, damp, dirty, ill-ventilated, miserable hovel, kept by the
most filthy people I ever beheld, containing four beds seldom changed,
and which I have witnessed filled with beggars of the lowest
description, there have been the following cases:—A son and daughter
died, another son and daughter had the disease, and the mother had two
attacks, all within a period of 18 months. This family, in consequence
of their filthy habits, was removed to the workhouse, but could not be
induced to remain; and they again returned to their old quarters, and
were afflicted as above described.

“The constable has several times visited these houses, to endeavour to
prevent the nuisance of so many congregating in them; but his efforts
have hitherto been ineffectual.”

_Sir John Walsham_ thus exemplifies the descriptions he has received of the lodging-houses in Newcastle:—

“There is a considerable number of lodging-houses in Newcastle, some
of the rooms of which are frequently occupied by from 15 to 20 persons
each. In these houses the most deplorable scenes of profligacy and
depravity are met with, both sexes being crowded together in a manner
injurious to both health and morals.

“A medical gentleman told me, in Stockton, this morning, that in the
common lodging-houses where travelling vagrants are frequently
attacked with fever, &c., and in many cases die, the beds are the very
next night occupied by fresh inmates, who of course are infected with
the same disorder.”

And one of the relieving officers for the same town says:—

“I have frequently had occasion to complain to the magistrates against
the lodging-houses taking in so many lodgers; but the law in this
respect is so defective that they could render me no assistance. On a
Sunday last July, I went to see a man (a travelling musician) who was
very ill of the small-pox, and died a few days afterwards. The house
contained four small rooms, and was situated in a back yard, in a very
narrow, confined, dirty lane. There were 40 people in the house, and
they were not all in that lodged there. Four months ago I went into a
room in the same yard; the room was very dirty; it was 9 feet broad by
15 feet long, and contained four beds, in which slept two men, four
women, and thirteen children. I found in one of the beds two children
very ill of scarlet fever; in another, a child ill of the measles; in
another, a child that had died of the measles the day before; and in a
fourth, a woman and her infant, born two days before; and the only
space between the four beds was occupied by a tinker, hard at work.”

The lodging-houses in Scotland are similarly characterized. _Dr. Scott Alison_ states that,—

“There are many regular lodging-houses in Tranent, perhaps from 15 to
20, in which paupers, vagrants, and a few labouring people live. The
people reside there for a considerable time. I have known colliers in
employment to live in these houses. They are crowded at all hours, but
more especially at night. Men, women, and children live and sleep in
the same apartment. In one of them I have seen an apartment, about 18
feet long and 10 feet wide, which contained four beds made up
constantly; and when the house was ‘throng,’ another was added to the
number. The lodging-houses are the head-quarters for beggars. The
people go about during the day pursuing their avocations, and return
home at night to regale themselves with their earnings. These people
lie in bed till very late, and, if visited in the forenoon, may be
seen sitting beside the fire, roasting herrings or frying meat. They
live well amidst their wretchedness.”

In the report of _Mr. James Cameron_, surgeon of Tain, there occurs the following description of the lodging-houses in that part of Scotland:—

“There are three lodging-houses in Tain, which are chiefly occupied by
beggars and hawkers. These places are kept in the filthiest condition
imaginable: I have been credibly informed that the bed-clothes used in
one of these houses have not been washed for the last five years!
Summer being the season when these people are generally abroad, these
low lodgings are then often crowded to excess. During the week-days
the beggars and hawkers perambulate the country, returning on Saturday
night. They frequently, especially when collected in large numbers,
drink to excess; and their conduct on such occasions is riotous and
disgusting in the extreme. The general charge for such lodgings is
2_d._ per head for the night, with an ample allowance of whisky to the
landlords by way of perquisite. These individuals are unfortunately
the means of introducing infectious diseases, such as fever,
small-pox, measles, &c.”

In Edinburgh and Glasgow, as the confluence of vagrants, and especially of Irish vagrants, becomes greater, such receptacles become more numerous and crowded, and the evils attendant upon them more intense.

The injury done to the health of the public in general, and to the health of portions of the operative classes, by the generation or propagation of disease in such places, forms only one part of the evils which call for interference by preventive measures. These evils appear to require for their correction powers to be put in operation by the concurrent exertions of the officers charged with sanitary measures, or the prevention of disease; of the officers charged with the administration of relief to destitution and the prevention of mendicity, and of the officers charged with the protection of the public peace and the prevention of crime. Further, to complete the view of the chief evils arising from these receptacles, we may refer to the report and evidence for the state of them, collected by my colleagues and myself, on the inquiry as to the state of crime, under the Constabulary Force Commission on the state of the lodging-houses in respect to crime:—

Ҥ35. We found only few of the magisterial divisions from which we
obtained information that were not seriously afflicted by the
existence of such receptacles, and in any arrangements for the
prevention of crime within the rural districts the means of
suppressing or controlling the common lodging-house must have a
prominent place. The trampers’ lodging-house is distinct from the
beer-shop or the public-house, or any licensed place of public
accommodation: it is not only the place of resort of the mendicant,
but of the common thief; it is the ‘flash-house’ of the rural
district; it is the receiving-house for stolen goods; it is the most
extensively-established school for juvenile delinquency, and commonly
at the same time the most infamous brothel in the district.

The magistrates of the division of Warwick state—

“‘That in the borough of Warwick such houses are both numerous and a
very general receptacle of petty offenders. Here the common vagrants
and trading beggars assemble in great numbers at nightfall, or take up
their quarters for very many days, making the lodging-house the common
centre from whence they issue in the morning, traverse their several
beats, and return at night. It is not unfrequent for such vagrants to
make the immediate neighbourhood their regular walk even for some
weeks, changing their beats, which are carefully arranged among
themselves, and only quitting their quarters to avoid detection in
some petty pilfering, or because, from becoming too well known, they
can no longer successfully impose on the public in the quarter they
have so long frequented.’

“The magistrates of the Chelmsford division state:—

“‘There are several lodging-houses in the town of Chelmsford where in
the course of the year it is supposed upwards of 2000 trampers or
vagrants resort. The greater number of these persons shelter
themselves from apprehension and punishment under the Vagrant Act, by
professing to be match-sellers. This is made a cloak for begging alms,
and the pretext for going from house to house, and pilfering, as
opportunity offers. The lodging-houses at Chelmsford are made the
centre of a kind of circuit which these people make almost
periodically.

“‘The system of lodging-houses for travellers, otherwise trampers,
requires to be altogether revised: at present they are in the practice
of lodging all the worst characters unquestioned, and are subject to
no other control than an occasional visit of inspection from the
parish officers, accompanied by the constables, whose power of
interference, if they have a legal right of entry, does not extend to
some of the most objectionable points connected with those houses, as
they can merely take into custody such persons as they find in
commission of some offence. The state in which those houses are found
on the occasion of such visit proves how much they require
interference. The houses are small, and yet as many as thirty
travellers, or even thirty-five, have been found in one house; fifteen
have been found sleeping in one room, three or four in one bed, men,
women, and children promiscuously. Beds have been found occupied in a
cellar. It is not necessary to urge the many opportunities of
preparing for crime which such a state of things presents, or the
actual evils arising from such a mode of harbouring crowds of low and
vicious persons.’”

In our First Report we observed, that—“The mischiefs of these migratory streams of depredators and vagrants, and other bad characters, is not confined to the crimes which they commit, though those must be extremely extensive to furnish such numerous hordes with the means of subsistence; these characters, experienced in the crimes and vices of the criminal associations of the larger towns from whence they sally forth, form such large proportions of the population of the gaols in the rural districts, as are stated in the return of prisoners in Knutsford gaol. The other portion of the inmates of the gaol, chiefly agricultural labourers, natives of the country, confined for misdemeanours, may in such receptacles be considered pupils in these normal schools of crime, to learn and carry back to the rural villages the knowledge and the incitement to felonious practices.”

It appears that, on the several grounds of public expediency, for the preservation of the public health, and for the preservation of the public peace, all common lodging-houses,—all places which are open for the reception of strangers, travellers, and wayfarers by the night, and houses laid out and provided for numbers of lodgers, should be subjected to regulations for the protection of the inmates as well as the public at large. This appears, indeed, to be consistent with the ancient police of the country. By narrowing the definition of the places for which licences were rendered necessary to those where spirits or fermented liquors are sold to be drunk on the premises, (as if a revenue were the only proper object of their government,) it appears that there has been a mischievous dereliction of the ancient and sound policy of the law which subjects the “victualler” as well as the keeper of the hostel, inn, or lodging-house to responsibilities for the protection of the inmates, and the convenience of the inhabitants in the neighbourhood where such houses may be situate. The common lodging-house keeper is in fact an inferior victualler, but evading the licence and the responsibilities of the victualler, by sending out for the fermented liquors which are consumed by the lodgers.

It appears, from various portions of evidence, that the occupation of a lodging-house keeper is a profitable one: instances are given from various parts of the country where the keepers of such houses have accumulated property; and whilst the keepers of public-houses, however small, or of beer-shops, are subjected to the necessity of taking out licences, there is no apparent reason for the exemption of lodging-house keepers from that charge by reason of poverty; neither should I consider that it would be a disadvantage, but the contrary, if the proper regulation of such houses were effected at some increase of the price of the lodgings. On examination of the description of persons accommodated in such houses, (whilst there is a public provision for those who are really in a state of destitution, and means are provided for removing them to their places of settlement when it is necessary,) I find no class whose migration is entitled to any encouragement by any diminution of the charge of providing proper lodgings. Another topic of consideration in connexion with houses of this class, is the tendency of the degraded accommodation to degrade the classes of the population who have recourse to it. I would therefore submit for consideration, whether all common lodging-houses should not be required by law to take out licences in the same manner as public-houses; and that, as the condition of holding such licences, they be subjected to inspection by the medical officers of the union (or the district medical officer), and bound to conform to such sanitary regulations in respect to cleanliness, ventilation, and numbers proportioned to the space, as he may be authorized to prescribe for the protection of the health of the inmates: and also that all such lodging-houses shall be subjected to the regulations of the magistrates, and shall be open to the visits and inspection of the police, for the enforcement of duly authorized regulations, without any search-warrant or other authority than that necessary for their entrance into any house belonging to a licensed victualler.

It may further be submitted for consideration that, by the beneficial progress made in the habits of temperance in some districts, the disuse of spirituous or fermented liquors may enable the proprietors of houses of a higher order of resort than those in question to convert them into coffee-houses or victualling-houses, and at the same time dispense with the expense of the licence, and avoid also the responsibilities for the protection of the public which the law has attached to licensed houses of resort for travellers.

From the reports received from the more populous towns, it would appear that there are few houses which are let for the accommodation of large numbers of regular lodgers which might not be benefited by the inspection of a medical officer. I believe it would be more beneficial to the public to extend than to narrow the definition of the places which should be subjected to regulations as lodging-houses; and that a discretion as to the description of house which shall be included might be safely confided to the magistrates who have local charge of the public peace and the public economy of the towns.

The report received from _Mr. Charles R. Baird_, on the state of the law applicable to the sanitary regulation of Glasgow, and the condition of the labouring classes, as affected by the incompleteness or absence of such regulations, affords evidence of the practical effect of measures such as those recommended. Powers for the execution of such measures have been already obtained and put into operation by the magistrates and authorities of that city.

“The lodging-houses,” said Dr. Cowan, “are the media through which the
newly-arrived immigrants find their way to the fever hospital; and it
is remarkable how many of the inmates of that hospital, coming from
lodging-houses, have not been six months in the city.” He might have
added, these lodging-houses are the great _foci_ of poverty, vice, and
crime, as well as of disease. These houses are generally of a very
wretched description, in low, unwholesome situations, exceedingly
dirty and ill-ventilated, and are frequently crowded to excess, it
being no uncommon thing to find 8, 10, and 12 persons in one small
apartment, as 9 feet by 8, or 11 by 8. Some of them also have no beds
whatever in them, the inmates lying on the bare floor, or with a few
shavings below them, with their clothes on. A more particular
description of them will be got in Captain Miller’s Papers on Crime in
the City Proper, Mr. Rutherglen’s (one of the magistrates) on Calton,
and Mr. Richardson on the Barony of Gorbals. It would appear from
these published documents, and from what I have been able to learn
otherwise, that the lodging-houses in the City Proper are decidedly of
the worst description; but I am aware that the authorities are
adopting means to have them in better order in future. In the burgh of
Anderston they have for some time been under the surveillance of the
police; and a record is kept of all lodging-houses for the
accommodation of casual visitors in Gorbals (by which it appears that
there were lately 92—50 kept by males, and 42 by females; only 25 of
them entertain the lowest class of poor), so that they may be properly
regulated. It is only in Calton, however, that they are attended to
with that strict care which is requisite, and fortunately the last
Police Act for that burgh gives ample powers for that purpose. It
provides, by section 20, That no keeper of lodging-houses of an
inferior description, for the accommodation of mendicant strangers and
others, shall receive lodgers without the house having been inspected
and approved of by the superintendent of police, and the
superintendent is authorized to fix the number of lodgers who may be
accommodated, and to order a ticket containing the number of lodgers
for which each house is registered; and any rules or instructions of
the commissioners of police regarding health, cleanliness, and
ventilation, to be placed in a conspicuous part of each room in which
lodgers are received. It also provides that the keepers of such
lodgings offending against these regulations shall be liable in
penalties. Section 21 enacts, That in the event of any person in such
houses becoming ill of fever or other disease, the keepers shall be
bound to give intimation thereof to the superintendent of police or
inspector, so that the disease may be inquired into and treated, and
the magistrates are authorized to order such persons to be removed.
And section 22 further enacts, That on any contagious or infectious
disease occurring in any such lodging-houses, or in any house or
apartment in any house, or apartment in any common tenement, &c.,
where there is reasonable apprehension of such diseases spreading, the
magistrates may cause the remaining lodgers to be removed, and
measures to be taken for the disinfecting and cleaning of the houses
and apartments, and for the washing and purifying of the persons and
clothes of the inhabitants.

“In addition to these excellent provisions, the magistrates of Calton,
in virtue of the powers in their police Acts, have issued the
following rules and instructions to be observed by all keepers of
lodging-houses, viz.—1st. The floors are to be washed at least twice
in each week, viz., on Wednesday and Saturday. 2nd. The walls are to
be whitewashed, and the houses thoroughly cleaned, on the 1st day of
each of the months of June, August, November and March, or on the
following day if any of these days fall on Sunday. And, 3rd. The
blankets used in all lodging-houses are to be thoroughly cleaned and
scoured on the 8th day of each of the months of June, August,
November, and March, or on the following day if any of these days fall
on Sunday; and if any person or persons in such house shall be
affected with fever or other infectious disease, the blankets and bed
clothes used by such person or persons shall be thoroughly cleaned and
scoured immediately after the removal of the diseased, and the bedding
used by persons affected with contagious disease fumigated immediately
after the removal of such person or persons. And where the bedding
used is shavings or straw, the same shall be burnt immediately after
such removal.

“These provisions and regulations have been very judiciously enforced
by the magistrates of Calton and their superintendent of police, and
have been productive of most beneficial results. In addition to what
was formerly stated by Bailie Rutherglen, I have now before me a
distinct statement, by Mr. Smart, regarding the lodging-houses and
state of fever in Calton, which enables me to give the following
information:—Between 1st September, 1840, and 1st February last, 319
persons were brought before the magistrates of Calton for keeping
unregistered lodging-houses. Of these 216 were ordered to desist from
keeping lodgers till houses registered, &c.; 91 were fined and
ordained not to keep lodgers; 12 cases were dismissed. Of the 307
convicted for keeping unregistered lodging-houses, 90 got their houses
inspected and registered, 30 removed from the burgh, and 189 gave over
keeping lodgers, and were refused registration—refused principally on
account of the want of proper accommodation, and a few for harbouring
disreputable characters. Mr. Smart also informs me that several
hundreds of the worst houses of the poorer classes have been
whitewashed with Irish lime, and the lodging-houses having been put
under wholesome regulations, a marked improvement has taken place. In
Whisky-close, New-street, for several years past, as many as 30 cases
of fever occurred annually. Lime-washed in September last, and the
vagrants removed; only one case of fever has been known: and Mr. Smart
concludes, “I believe there are 1000 fever cases less in Calton this
day than there were on 1st September last.” Why should not the same
measures that have been so successfully enforced in Calton be
introduced into the City Proper and the other suburban districts?”

It were only a statement of the concurrent opinion of the commissioners of police, of magistrates, of medical officers, and of the guardians charged with the administration of the poor’s rates, to represent the urgent necessity of legislative provisions for the general adoption of similar measures throughout the country.

IX.—RECAPITULATION OF CONCLUSIONS.

The last cited instance of the practical operation of measures for the abatement of the nuisances attendant on common lodging-houses may also be submitted as an instance of the advantages derivable from the extension of such fields of inquiries as the present. On each of the chief points included in it there would have been a loss of what I hope will be deemed valuable corroborative information, had the inquiry been confined either to England or to Scotland. The observation of the important productive use of the refuse of the city of Edinburgh would have been of comparatively little value as evidence leading to practical applications, apart from the observation of what is accomplished by the practical application of science to sewerage and drainage for the immediate and cheapest removal of all the refuse of towns by water through closed drains afforded by the operation in the Holborn and Finsbury division of the metropolis. It may be stated confidently that, if the inquiry could conveniently have had still further extension as to time and place, the information would have been strengthened and rendered more complete. From incidental facts I have met with, I am led to believe that the whole of the effects which are the subject of the present report would have been still more strikingly displayed in many parts of Ireland.

After as careful an examination of the evidence collected as I have been enabled to make, I beg leave to recapitulate the chief conclusions which that evidence appears to me to establish.

_First, as to the extent and operation of the evils which are the subject of the inquiry_:—

That the various forms of epidemic, endemic, and other disease caused, or aggravated, or propagated chiefly amongst the labouring classes by atmospheric impurities produced by decomposing animal and vegetable substances, by damp and filth, and close and overcrowded dwellings prevail amongst the population in every part of the kingdom, whether dwelling in separate houses, in rural villages, in small towns, in the larger towns—as they have been found to prevail in the lowest, districts of the metropolis.

That such disease, wherever its attacks are frequent, is always found in connexion with the physical circumstances above specified, and that where those circumstances are removed by drainage, proper cleansing, better ventilation, and other means of diminishing atmospheric impurity, the frequency and intensity of such disease is abated; and where the removal of the noxious agencies appears to be complete, such disease almost entirely disappears.

That high prosperity in respect to employment and wages, and various and abundant food, have afforded to the labouring classes no exemptions from attacks of epidemic disease, which have been as frequent and as fatal in periods of commercial and manufacturing prosperity as in any others.

That the formation of all habits of cleanliness is obstructed by defective supplies of water.

That the annual loss of life from filth and bad ventilation are greater than the loss from death or wounds in any wars in which the country has been engaged in modern times.

That of the 43,000 cases of widowhood, and 112,000 cases of destitute orphanage relieved from the poor’s rates in England and Wales alone, it appears that the greatest proportion of deaths of the heads of families occurred from the above specified and other removable causes; that their ages were under 45 years; that is to say, 13 years below the natural probabilities of life as shown by the experience of the whole population of Sweden.

That the public loss from the premature deaths of the heads of families is greater than can be represented by any enumeration of the pecuniary burdens consequent upon their sickness and death.

That, measuring the loss of working ability amongst large classes by the instances of gain, even from incomplete arrangements for the removal of noxious influences from places of work or from abodes, that this loss cannot be less than eight or ten years.

That the ravages of epidemics and other diseases do not diminish but tend to increase the pressure of population.

That in the districts where the mortality is the greatest the births are not only sufficient to replace the numbers removed by death, but to add to the population.

That the younger population, bred up under noxious physical agencies, is inferior in physical organization and general health to a population preserved from the presence of such agencies.

That the population so exposed is less susceptible of moral influences, and the effects of education are more transient than with a healthy population.

That these adverse circumstances tend to produce an adult population short-lived, improvident, reckless, and intemperate, and with habitual avidity for sensual gratifications.

That these habits lead to the abandonment of all the conveniences and decencies of life, and especially lead to the overcrowding of their homes, which is destructive to the morality as well as the health of large classes of both sexes.

That defective town cleansing fosters habits of the most abject degradation and tends to the demoralization of large numbers of human beings, who subsist by means of what they find amidst the noxious filth accumulated in neglected streets and bye-places.

That the expenses of local public works are in general unequally and unfairly assessed, oppressively and uneconomically collected, by separate collections, wastefully expended in separate and inefficient operations by unskilled and practically irresponsible officers.

That the existing law for the protection of the public health and the constitutional machinery for reclaiming its execution, such as the Courts Leet, have fallen into desuetude, and are in the state indicated by the prevalence of the evils they were intended to prevent.

_Secondly. As to the means by which the present sanitary condition of the labouring classes may be improved_:—

The primary and most important measures, and at the same time the most practicable, and within the recognized province of public administration, are drainage, the removal of all refuse of habitations, streets, and roads, and the improvement of the supplies of water.

That the chief obstacles to the immediate removal of decomposing refuse of towns and habitations have been the expense and annoyance of the hand labour and cartage requisite for the purpose.

That this expense may be reduced to one-twentieth or to one-thirtieth, or rendered inconsiderable, by the use of water and self-acting means of removal by improved and cheaper sewers and drains.

That refuse when thus held in suspension in water may be most cheaply and innoxiously conveyed to any distance out of towns, and also in the best form for productive use, and that the loss and injury by the pollution of natural streams may be avoided. That for all these purposes, as well as for domestic use, better supplies of water are absolutely necessary.

That for successful and economical drainage the adoption of geological areas as the basis of operations is requisite.

That appropriate scientific arrangements for public drainage would afford important facilities for private land-drainage, which is important for the health as well as sustenance of the labouring classes.

That the expense of public drainage, of supplies of water laid on in houses, and of means of improved cleansing would be a pecuniary gain, by diminishing the existing charges attendant on sickness and premature mortality.

That for the protection of the labouring classes and of the ratepayers against inefficiency and waste in all new structural arrangements for the protection of the public health, and to ensure public confidence that the expenditure will be beneficial, securities should be taken that all new local public works are devised and conducted by responsible officers qualified by the possession of the science and skill of civil engineers.

That the oppressiveness and injustice of levies for the whole immediate outlay on such works upon persons who have only short interests in the benefits may be avoided by care in spreading the expense over periods coincident with the benefits.

That by appropriate arrangements, 10 or 15 per cent. on the ordinary outlay for drainage might be saved, which on an estimate of the expense of the necessary structural alterations of one-third only of the existing tenements would be a saving of one million and a half sterling, besides the reduction of the future expenses of management.

That for the prevention of the disease occasioned by defective ventilation, and other causes of impurity in places of work and other places where large numbers are assembled, and for the general promotion of the means necessary to prevent disease, that it would be good economy to appoint a district medical officer independent of private practice, and with the securities of special qualifications and responsibilities to initiate sanitary measures and reclaim the execution of the law.

That by the combinations of all these arrangements, it is probable that the full ensurable period of life indicated by the Swedish tables; that is, an increase of 13 years at least, may be extended to the whole of the labouring classes.

That the attainment of these and the other collateral advantages of reducing existing charges and expenditure are within the power of the legislature, and are dependent mainly on the securities taken for the application of practical science, skill, and economy in the direction of local public works.

And that the removal of noxious physical circumstances, and the promotion of civic, household, and personal cleanliness, are necessary to the improvement of the moral condition of the population; for that sound morality and refinement in manners and health are not long found co-existant with filthy habits amongst any class of the community.

I beg leave further to suggest, that the principles of amendment deduced from the inquiry will be found as applicable to Scotland as to England; and if so, it may be submitted for attention whether it might not be represented that the structural arrangements for drainage would be most conveniently carried out in the same form as in England, that is by commissions, of the nature of commissions of sewers adapted, as regards jurisdiction to natural or geological areas, and including in them the chief elected officers of municipalities, and other authorities now charged with the care of the streets and roads or connected with local public works.

The advantages of uniformity in legislation and in the executive machinery, and of doing the same things in the same way (choosing the best), and calling the same officers, proceedings, and things by the same names, will only be appreciated by those who have observed the extensive public loss occasioned by the legislation for towns which makes them independent of beneficent, as of what perhaps might have been deemed formerly aggressive legislation. There are various sanitary regulations, and especially those for cleansing, directed to be observed in “every town except Berwick and Carlisle;” a course of legislation which, had it been efficient for England, would have left Berwick and Carlisle distinguished by the oppression of common evils intended to be remedied. It was the subject, of public complaint, at Glasgow and in other parts of Scotland, that independence and separation in the form of general legislation separated the people from their share of the greatest amount of legislative attention, or excluded them from common interest and from the common advantages of protective measures. It was, for example, the subject of particular complaint, that whilst the labouring population of England and Ireland had received the advantages of public legislative provision for a general vaccination, the labouring classes in Scotland were still left exposed to the ravages of the small-pox. It was also complained by Dr. Cowan and other members of the medical profession, that Scotland had not been included in the provisions for the registration of the causes of death which they considered might, with improvements, be made highly conducive to the advancement of medical science and the means of protecting the public health.

I have the honour to be,
Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
EDWIN CHADWICK.