The free admission of light and air to each inhabited room;
The abolition of the cess-pool, involving complete house drainage, an abundant supply of water, and the immediate removal by it of all refuse which it is capable of holding in suspension;
Means for the removal of house refuse not capable of suspension in water.
And this is all. And what are the results of these few and simple arrangements?
That the mortality among the inhabitants of these dwellings is less than that of London generally, and far less than that of some of the filthy and neglected localities in London, the Potteries of Kensington for example; while the mortality among children under ten years of age, on an average of three years, is one-half less than that of the nation generally, and four times less than that of the Potteries;
That there has not been a single death from typhus, or any other form of continued fever, among the adults in any of these buildings since their establishment; and that during the two first visitations of epidemic cholera, with the exception of two cases which occurred under peculiar circumstances, there was no attack of cholera in any of these buildings, while from four to six deaths from the pestilence occurred in single houses in the immediate neighbourhood.
Such are the results of the first imperfect attempt at improvement; which, remarkable as they are, are not more striking than the results of neglect. Of the children born in the best part of a town one fifth die before they attain the fifth year of age; of the children born in the worst, one-half die before they attain their fifth year. The inhabitants of the worst localities attain little more than one half of the age of those who live in the best. Of 100,000 children born in Surrey, 75,423 attain the age of ten years; 52,000 live to the age of fifty; and 28,878 live to seventy. In Liverpool, out of 100,000 persons born, only 48,211 live ten years; 25,878 live fifty years; and 8373 live seventy years. The probable duration of life in Surrey is 53 years; in Liverpool it is 26 years. Were the whole of the metropolis as healthy as the Model Dwellings, there would be an annual saving in London of nearly 20,000 lives. But these lives are not saved; this number of persons is allowed to perish every year, and they are as truly and as needlessly sacrificed as if they were taken out on Bethnal-green and shot.
When we bear in mind the suffering which in every case accompanies this waste of life, and the suffering which must inevitably follow it, and remember that it is admitted that these dreadful evils are remediable and preventible, it is difficult to suppress the natural feelings of indignation and of sorrow, that in a country calling itself Christian the application of the known remedies should be so long delayed.
It is right however to acknowledge that something has been done, and is in progress, for the improvement of the sanitary condition of the people. The principle is admitted that it is the duty of the Legislature to deal with this matter, and the first systematic legislative effort to bring about a better state of things has been made.
The Public Health Act is in operation, and the general and proper application by local authorities of the powers it confers would place every part of every town in Great Britain in as good a sanitary condition, at least, as that of the Model Dwellings.