And the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch wrote, in 1861:--
"That the diminished mortality and the lesser frequency of epidemic diseases are really due in great measure to sanitary works and inspection is proved by the diminution and even disappearance of certain forms of sickness from streets, courts, and districts where sewers have been constructed, ventilation provided, and other improvements effected; whilst, on the other hand, the districts still requiring those necessary reforms furnish far more than their proportion of the epidemic sickness and mortality."
Philanthropic individuals were increasing their efforts for the improvement of the people; and societies, working on a self-supporting basis, were taking more active interest in the housing problem, and erecting model lodging-houses and more healthy habitations.[80]
Public opinion was more interested than before in sanitary matters, and it was thought that the working classes had also in some degree awakened to the care of their own health.
"Altogether," wrote the Registrar General, in his report on the health of London after the census figures of 1861 were known, "there is abundant proof of that increased regard for human life that attends civilisation."
[57] Section 103 of Metropolis Local Management Act.
[58] There is in the library of the London County Council an almost complete set of these annual reports inherited from the Metropolitan Board of Works. Unless those sent to the Secretary of State, as directed by the Act, have been preserved, there is no other collection in existence.
[64] "Lungs for London," _Household Words_, vol. i. p. 45, 1850.
[79] Population went up from 51,824 in 1851 to 60,278 in 1896.
[80] "The moral and social benefits conferred by these buildings has been immeasurable," wrote one Medical Officer of Health (St. Pancras).
"They are institutions whose larger acceptance would save the lives of hundreds, and reclaim the morals of thousands," wrote another.
THE Census of 1861 disposed of the various estimates of the population of London, and of the death-rates in its various parishes, and gave authoritatively the actual figures.
From 2,363,341 persons in 1851, the population had gone up to 2,808,494 in 1861--an increase not very far short of half a million; and the number of inhabited houses had increased from 306,064 to 360,065.