The Express.
London, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA.

(bow the Clewed Board of Health, Oct. V.)
METROPOLIS.

From returus made this day to the General Board
of Health of cholera cases in the parish of St.
George (East), Mit:dlesex, it appears that from the
17th to the 22nd there have been 9 cases of
cholera, of which one has thus far resulted fatally
within 24 hours of the aitack. The description of
the locality and house is is every instance without
exception, in which the case.• are reported to have
occurred, extremely bad. In one case " the room of
the family is stated to be dirty and full of poisonous
air." In another the return is that "the rooms are
I overcrowded and dirty, with filthy children in rags
with dirty skins." Again, "dirty in the extreme, 81
persons sleeping in the same room; " another " very
overcrowded." Six oases occurred in one house, 33,
Upper Chapman-street, also described as " over-
crowded," another house is stated to have "very
bad drainage." Bad smell pervading the whole of
the house. No sewer or means to carry off the water.
Sewer close by, but no communication.
Returns made by the Superintendents of the F,
K, L, M, and N divisions of police to the commis-
sioners, and transmitted by them to the General
Board of Health, state that, between the 13th and
21st inst., there have occurred eight new cases of
cholera in those districts, and two deathe, in addition
to three cases previously reported, one of whom has
died, and the other two have recovered.

On Saturday, the 22nd, Dr. Milroy had an inter-
view with the board of guardians of St. Martin-in-
the-Fields, to confer with them upon the measures
riquired to be taken for the protection of the public'
health by the rules and regulations issued by the
General Board of Health, under the recent order of
her Majesty's Privy Council.
It is stated that the authorities of this palish have
taken the lead in the adoption of active means for
the suppression of nuisances and for the general
amelioration of the condition of the poorer classes.
With reference to the threatened visitation of cholera

they had at to early period appointed four
medical officers, with the slew not only of esta-
blishing a systematic sanitary inspection of every
locality and dwelling, but also of promptly discover-
ing and bringing at once under treattaent all cases
of premonitory disease.
By these judicious precautionary measures much
disease will be prevented, and the heavy expenses
always consequent thereon.
Some of the houses in one or two of the confir ed
unwholesome courts being considered by the medical
()likens to be so thoroughly bad as to be unfit for
human habitation, the board of Guardians are pre-
pared to take vigorous steps against she owners of the
property.
The board have had several times under their con-

-„—.
sideration the scheme of erecting model dwellings
for the poor, in pursuance of the power possessed
by local governing bodies under Lord Shattesbury's
Act of 18M, entitled " The Labouring Classes'
Lodging-houses Act."
The nature and provisions of this act do not ap-
pear to be at all known by local authorities in the
metropolis. The act is entirely distinct from the
Common Lodging-houses Act, as its name imports,
its title being „The Labouring Classes' Lodging-
houses Act," nor should any one be misled by the re-
tention of the term "lodging-houses." The object
of the framers of this act was not merely to enable
parochial authorities to construct a better order of
common lodging-houses than those at present exist-
ing for single persons and for nightly accommoda-
tion, but to construct healthy dwellings for the per-
manent residence of poor families on the model of the
Metropolitan Building, St. Pancras, and the houses
for families in Streatham-street, Bloomsbury. By
the Common Lodging-houses Act 1551 powers are
conferred for the due regulation of common lodging-
houses; by the "Labouring Classes' Lodging-houses
Act " 1531 powers are conferred for the erection of
other and better habitations for the families of the
poor. One of the immediate objects of this act was
to wake provision for the reception of families on the
enforcement of the law for the discontinuance of
cellar dwellings. By the combined effect of these
measures local authorities may secure the beneficial
executions of the law for enforcing the discon:inu-
ance of ill-conditioned cellar dwellings asith-
out obliging their tenants to resort to
hovels which are unfit for human habitation.
Every fresh inspection of the state of the dwellings
of the poorer classes in the metropolis is a fresh
illustration of the necessity of the powers conferred
by this act, and of the responsibility incurred by
neglecting to use them. It is not generally known
that cellar dwellings are common in London. It is
imagined that they are peculiar to Liverpool, Man-
chester, and Leeds. Mr. Grainger, one of the medi-
cal inspectors of the General Board of Health, has
recently called attention to the great number of
these dwellings in London, and particularly in some
parishes, as in Marylebone. Such dwellings are,
not in London called " cellars," but underground
kitchens.

There seems occasion to apprehend that of all the
habitations in London those inhabited underground
cellars are the most dangerous.
Many of those visited by me (says Mr. Grainger)
were each occupied by a whole family ; in other
instances a family occupies both the front and back
kitchen ; in some canes more than one family occu-
' pied a single cellar.
In 1849, and again this week, I took some mea-
surements. The following is a specimen :—Depth
below the surface of the street, 7 feet 3 inches ;
_ength of hitches, 10 feet 3 inches ; width, 9 feet 8
inches ; height, 7 feet. The areas which I have
measured vary in breadth from 4 feet 3 inches to
2 feet 7 inches ; the window is often altogether
below the level of the street, and very
small ; the kitchens, and especially the back ones,
are dark, many so gloomy that writing is difficult.
The privy and dust-bin are close to the door and
window, and are in most cases highly offensive, and
arc complained of by the inhabitants. In such a
room I have found a family consisting of seven or
eight persons, having consequently from 60 to 90
cubic tat each, whilst the lowest allowance in a
sleeping apartment, compatible with healthy exist-
ence, is 300 cubic feet. At Liverpool and elsewhere
the average allowance for each person in the regu-
lated common lodging houses is 250 cubic feet.
The majority of those inspected yesterday were
very filthy as to the interior walls, B:c., though in
many places, owing to the exertions of the authori-
ties, lime-washing, especially of the areas and outer
walls, had either been effected or was in progress.
In repeated instances 1 found large accumulations in
the ash-pits, and the poor people loudly complained
of the neglect of the dustman.
The worst specimen that came under my notice
was a place called Gray's buildings, Duke-street,
Manchester-square. It is densely crowded ; closed
at the west end by high buildings, preventing venti-
lation and with-the surface strewed with refuse.

There are here numerous miserable dark damp cellars
there is no open area, nothing but an iron grating for
the admission of light, one of these areas was measured
it was 8 feet below the street, and only 27 ins. wide.'
In the front cellar lived a man and wife, with one
child, with two other grown-up people, the rent
2,5. 6d.; in the back cellar, a gloomy hole, were
living a woman and her son, rent 2e. On inspec-
tion I found several ashpits almost full. The dust-
man, it was stated by several women, did not come
more than once a fort,.ight, and then did not remove
all the refuse, the worst, at the bottom, being left.
The men expect beer, and will not do their duty
without it. One woman, who had lived two years
in the house, had never known the pit emptied to the
bottom. The stench was described as horrible, espe-
cially when the filth was thus disturbed without
complete removal : " the smell often made them
sick." The privies, as usual, were most offensive.
The medical evidence collected shows that in 1849
the inhabitants of this dangerous class of dwellings
suffered most severely from cholera ; that scarlet
fever in its most malignant form constantly recurs,
and widely spreads in them, and that the worst cases
of typhus occurring in London are seen there. As
an example of the rate of disease found on inspec-
tion to be prevalent, Mr. Grainger cites the fol-
lowing :
I visited No. 9, Bell-street, Lisson-grove, whore
in a fancily occupying the two cellars, baying seven
children, four of them had just had sear.et fever;
whilst front the back room above, another boy had
been removed with the same disease to the

* According to tht Metroindium Buildings Act co collar
is permitted to be occupied as a separate dwellia[c, unless
there be en area not lea than three feet wide m every
part.