Note 63 — APPENDIX. (continued 3)

Mr. R. Bell, the Registrar of the Kent-road District:—In what parts or your district has the number of deaths registered in the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 been the greatest in proportion to the population?—“There are many close, filthy courts in this district; in these, the deaths are uniformly the highest; and the local registration does not correctly show this fact, for the people inhabiting them are very poor, and in extreme illness are often removed either to the workhouse or the hospitals, and they die in those places.” And state generally the condition of those unhealthy streets, courts, and houses as to drainage, supplies of water, cleanliness.—“Drainage,—open gutters choked, and pits of stagnant water. Supplies of water—good supply from water works. Cleanliness—as a general rule they seldom attend to this, unless they expect a visit from the medical or other officers: they excuse it by stating that they have to work for their living. The people live very close in small rooms; have often more than one bed in a room. Beds are made of straw and shavings to sleep on, and a great number sleep on the floor; from three to ten persons in a room; almost every room is a sleeping-room.”

Mr. J. Bedwell, the Registrar of the Borough-road District;—In what parts of your district has the number of deaths registered in the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 been the greatest in proportion to the population?—“My district, formerly nearly a square, bounded on the west by about 50 houses in Blackfriars-road; on the south, by about 70, in the Borough road; on the east, by about the same number in Blackman-street, and partly on the north by Wellington-street; I find the greatest number of deaths in proportion to the population in the small streets within the above quadrangle. Drainage very deficient; supply of water plentiful; cleanliness little attended to by a great number. The density of population extreme. Small houses with a family in each room. We have lodging-houses in the Mint where from 50 to 150 sleep nightly; 10 large beds in one room in some of them.”