The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-03 00:00:00

FEVER IN LONDON.

The Tintts publishes this morning a loos letter from Dr.
H. Jeaffreson, late resident medical officer to the London
Fever Hospital, setting forth the result of a house to house
inspection be has lately made of the various neighbour.
hoods which he has known typhus fever to be most prase.
lent, viz., of the worst quarters of Lambeth, St. George's,
Sinthwark ; Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Bethnal-green, St.
Luke's, Middlesex ; St. Pancras, and St. Giles. His de-
scription more than accounts for the prevalence of fever.
The fronts of some of these houses look out upon un-
paved courts or alleys, the soil of winch is a
rotten mass of mud and refuse, often soaked with
sewage, and sometimes with the drainage trate slaughter.
houses. The offensive mass is allowed to accumulate for
months, and cartloads are taken away whenever the nut-
mace is at length relieved. At the backs of the same houses
are little yards equally covered with decaying refuse, and
frequently poisoned by still worse nuisances. Inside
the houses there are families of from two to ten
persons crowded into single rooms, of which the walls are
rotten, and the ceilings broken, so as to admit the
rain, which finds its way through the roof. There is
often no ventilation through the house. There are no
windows on the staircase, and those of the rooms must t
kept closed to avoid the poisonous stench of the soil out-
side. Sometimes the very cellars, or underground kitchens,
of the house are choked with refuse, in which animal life is
breeding. Some of these wretched houses coot :in but four
small rooms, and some, with but two or three, are
built back to back, so as to allow no opening
whatever behind ; an I those are among the most
fortunate of toe poor who live in eight or twelve
roomed houses in the more respectable neighbor-
-
hoods, • who'e family crowded into each room,
and the conveniences originally constructed for the
use of one moderate-els yl household compelled to suffice
for ten or a doze., fawns'. For the service of one of
these dense hives of humanity water is laid on in a half-
inch pipe for about 20 minutes a day, and accumu-
lates in a rAten butt, within which the droppings
from the eaves or as soakings of the soddssn soil
of the yard fill the water with scum and filth ; and
this scanty and noisome liquid is all that some
twenty or thir' y families an obtain for cooking,
washing, and every purpose of cle tallness. Dr. Jeaffreeon
points out that the houses he has described obviously involve
a waste of space, and that if it pays to erect these smell
houses with a return of rent from only three or four families
it ought to pay to erect loftier buildings, which would be
rented by double the number. Gradually all the three
classes of houses described in Dr. Jeaffrason's letter most
inevitably be rebuilt, and the Times is confident that it
will moms day Ds fo I worth while to build them in
sty'e more suited to their purpose. Meanwhile it is noto-
rious that landlords mar be compelled to remove accumu-
lations of refuse, and to cr,or.de more or lees adequate
drainage. Why does not the sanitary officer of such neigh.
bourhoode denounce th t abosa to the vestries or local
boards, and give the reepons.ble persons no rest until they
have done their duty ? There ere regal Woos, again, in the
mete smitten acts requirin; • proper supply of water to be
furnished to courts sod houses. Have those regulations
been actively enforced sod f sued ineffectual' Unhappily
Dr. Jeaffreson found that in several instagees the owners of
certain low typhus-infected house property are active and
obstructive members of vestry, as well, sometimes, as
guardians of the poor. Of the vestrymen whose callings
admit of tabulation the publia-house-keepers are in an
immense m►jor.ty.