The necessity for providing in some way for the airing of streets and courts in densely populated neighbourhoods, by the knocking down of houses or other expedients, is insisted upon. Its difficulty is admitted, but still it is urged.
"Though it might seem a hopeless task," he says, "to set about ventilating such districts as Bethnal Green and Whitechapel, yet, if the importance of the principle be duly appreciated and the object be kept steadily in view, much may be accomplished. In some of the worst localities in these districts, at moderate expense, means might be taken to introduce free currents of air, where at present the air is perfectly stagnant and stifling. Some of the improvements recently made in the City of London show to what extent it is possible to introduce good ventilation into the heart of the most densely populated part of the Metropolis."
In this Report my grandfather also draws attention to the state of the Workhouses. He was writing to the Poor Law Commissioners, and so he could efficiently bring under their notice the state of those buildings.
"From what I have observed I am satisfied," he says, "that many existing workhouses are extremely deficient in space, ventilation, and drainage."
The overcrowding in the dormitories is especially pointed out. He writes:—
"In going over the Whitechapel Workhouse I was struck with the statement of the fact that, out of 104 children (girls) resident in that house, 89 have recently been attacked with fever. On examining the dormitory in which these children sleep, my wonder ceased. In a room 88 feet long, 16-1/2 wide, and 7 feet high, with a sloping roof rising to 10 feet, all these 104 children, together with four women who have the charge of them, sleep. The beds are close to each other; in all the beds there are never less than four children, in many five; the ventilation of the room is most imperfect. Under such circumstances the breaking out of fever is inevitable.
"I was likewise struck with the pale and unhealthy appearance of a number of children in the Whitechapel Workhouse, in a room called the 'Infant Nursery.' These children appear to be from two to three years of age; they are 23 in number, they all sleep in one room, and they seldom or never go out of this room either for air or exercise. Several attempts have been made to send these infants into the country, but a majority of the Board of Guardians has hitherto succeeded in resisting the proposition.
"In the Whitechapel Workhouse there are two fever-wards: in the lower ward the beds are much too close; two fever patients are placed in each bed; the ventilation is most imperfect, and the room is so close as to be dangerous to all who enter it, as well as most injurious to the sick."
The Report mentions, in contrast, the case of the Jews' Hospital, where he had been physician. In that hospital, though at one time there had been a yearly outbreak of fever, since the number of beds in the dormitories had been reduced, and several large ventilators had been put in, the evil had entirely ceased. At the time he wrote eight years had passed since the improvements, and fever had not once returned as an epidemic.