“It is only by repeated and careful inspection of the dwellings of the poor, and an inculcation at these visits of the necessity for keeping clean their rooms that epidemic diseases can be kept in check.”
The Medical Officer of Health for St. James’ wrote (1862):—
“The nuisances which are removed, are constantly recurring. It is only by constant inspection and by supervision repeated systematically from day to day, and week to week, that those nuisances can be kept down which are ever ready to destroy the life, and at one and the same time sap the health and undermine the morality of the community.”
The Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel wrote:—
“If it were not for the vigilance of the Inspectors in visiting the houses of the poor, nuisances would remain altogether unattended to; for very few of the poor dare to make a complaint from fear of being compelled to quit their tenements.”
The Medical Officers of Health recognised that much of the bad condition of the dwellings of the poorer classes was due to the people themselves.
Thus the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster wrote (1865–6):—
“It is much to be regretted that in certain districts of the parish only a temporary good is effected by a sometimes lavish expenditure on the part of the proprietor. The habits of the people are such that it is almost impossible to do anything for their benefit. Not only are they filthy in themselves, but they take every opportunity to break, destroy, and steal anything that may be of value, and what is even worse they appear to negative any sanitary precaution effected for their benefit.”
But the broad truth was that the real, the primary responsibility rested upon the “owners.”