HH62/2/LANARK/58

Transcription

[Page] 57

HOSPITAL FOR 10 BEDS.
Pavilions, --- £535.0.0
Administrative Department, --- £419.0.0
Boundary walls, --- £200.0.0
Van sheds, &c., --- £100.0.0
Total, £1,254, or at the rate of £125 8s. per bed.

I am,
Your obedient Servant,
JAMES DOBSON.
PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
UDDINGSTON, 11th January, 1892.

The question of sites for the various hospitals is now
under the consideration of the Committee.

Disinfection. - The means for disinfection of clothing,
bedding, &c., at the disposal of the sanitary officers are
totally ineffective in the Middle Ward, as well as in the
rest of the county. Recognising that much haziness existed
in the minds of the public generally as to the real signifi-
cance of disinfection, I issued a report in pamphlet form,
part of which I have reproduced at page 87 of this report.
The establishment of one or two public disinfecting stations
for the use of the Middle Ward is an absolute necessity,
and I have no doubt that such will be supplied, probably
in connection with the larger hospitals.

House Accommodation. - While dealing with the
county as a whole, I made reference to this subject, and
can add little as regards the Middle Ward, beyond saying
that it is in this part of the county that one meets with
the greatest number of badly constructed and overcrowded
houses.
In Mr. Dobson's report he gives certain statistics - the
accuracy of which I have no reason to doubt - pointing to

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a lamentable deficiency in good house accommodation.
He says that of 3,606 houses visited 2,063 were of one
apartment, and the remainder 1,543 of two apartments. In
the former there were living 9,830 people, or an average of
4·76 persons to each room, and in the latter 11,094, an
average of 7·19 persons per house, or 3·59 persons per
room! In 261 houses of one apartment actually lodgers
were kept, as if in a one-roomed house there were room
enough and to spare beyond what was required for a family.
I do not know that comment upon such a state of affairs is
needed. Still I cannot refrain from pointing out that
under these conditions the moral and physical well-being
of the inmates must suffer deterioration.
But not only were these houses deficient in the amount of
room; many of them were and are damp, undrained, and
out of repair. In short, there are those in the Middle Ward
who consider they have provided a house fit for habitation
when they have erected four brick walls of sufficient thick-
ness to support a roof, into one of which they have placed
a door and window - the latter so that it cannot open - into
another a brick fireplace, with a few iron bars, and against
a third wall, two partially enclosed spaces for beds so
contrived as to give the minimum of ventilation, especially
when the mistress of the house, in her desire to make
things look as comfortable as possible, places a curtain
across these bed spaces. The majority have wooden floors,
especially those built within recent years, and a small press
or cupboard.
Happily all are not alike, and I am glad to find that it is
beginning to be recognised that houses of one apartment
should not be tolerated; and I would like to add that some
colliery proprietors have displayed a laudable desire to
improve the dwellings of their workpeople, both as re-
gards internal arrangements and their surroundings. There
can be no doubt, however, that building regulations are
urgently required to put a check on less scrupulous
individuals.