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 2s. 6d. 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 3d. 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 2d. 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:—
“§35. 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.