He also quoted returns showing that the great
mortality among the tradesmen class in Westminster was explained from
the fact that the best rooms in the houses in which they live were let
for lodgings, the tradesmen contenting themselves with living in the
basements or back premises, which were frequently unhealthy. He looked
for great improvements in the health of the wage classes by the
construction of improved dwellings; but, he confessed, in many cases
workmen required to be taught to attend to precautions devised for their
health.
On the subject of sickness caused by insanitary conditions, he quoted
the remark of an East London clergyman that the "poor go on living in
wretched places, but have much ill-health." He showed from Mr. Burdett's
figures that the London voluntary hospitals and dispensaries cost nearly
L600,000 a year to administer--an expenditure incurred mainly for the
purpose of "patching up" the wretched poor who had been injured by bad
drainage, want of ventilation and the like; and he urged that it might
be safely assumed preventive measures would bring down the death-rate of
the wage class to one-half, reducing also the sickness rate in at least
a similar proportion.
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