Metropolitan workhouse infirmaries, &c. : Copy of the report of Dr. Edward Smith, Poor Law inspector and medical officer to the Poor Law Board, on the Metropolitan Workhouse infirmaries and sick wards / (Viscount Enfield).

  • Smith, Edward, 1818?-1874.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Metropolitan workhouse infirmaries, &c. : Copy of the report of Dr. Edward Smith, Poor Law inspector and medical officer to the Poor Law Board, on the Metropolitan Workhouse infirmaries and sick wards / (Viscount Enfield). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Part I. Details of the Inspection. Cleanliness. Ventilation. to, must be regarded as a matter quite apart, and as in no way indicative of want of cleanliness in the workhouses. The presence of bugs is also much to be regretted ; but considering their abundance in London houses of almost every class, and particularly 7if the class whence the inmates of workhouses are derived, greater importance must not be attached to it than it deserves. They were said to be numerous at St. George-the Martyr, with the old wooden and sacking bedsteads; and there it cannot be pleaded that the authorities were blameless, for those bedsteads ought to have been burnt, and supplanted by iron ones. We were also told that they were abundant at St. Mary’s at Newington ; and were present in the Holborn, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, and a few other workhouses. Pains are taken to prevent their entrance on the first admission of inmates, but the occasional visits which the inmates make to their old haunts, and the admission of visitors and other persons, afford great facilities for their introduction ; and, when once introduced, a perpetual warfare must be maintained against them to prevent the building from being overrun by them. Ventilation. The ventilation of the workhouses is almost everywhere defective, from the absence of efficient means of ventilation, and the almost universal habit of covering, or otherwise closing the ventilators. The first cause is almost, and the second quite universal. When referring to the construction of workhouses, I pointed out conditions which were unfavourable to both light and ventilation, and which were very generally present, viz.: imperfectly ventilated central corridors, and imperfect communication between the corridors and the wards. To those were also added the narrowness of certain corridors, as at Greenwich, the great length of the cor- ridors at Greenwich, Bethnal Green, and many other workhouses, without a sufficient number of transverse passages which have direct access to the outer air, and whatever circumstances were then cited as leading to deficient light must also be quoted as evidence of deficient ventilation. These, however, do not apply to such workhouses as St. George’s Hanover- square, Strand, and St. Margaret’s at Kensington, where there are outer walls on both sides of the wards, nor to a large majority of the detached infirmaries which, for the most part are of one ward only in depth. The root of the evil is doubtless the indifference to this subject, which until now has existed and even yet exists in reference to both private houses and public buildings; to want of due consideration of and knowledge upon the subject by those having the immediate charge of the wards, and to the rough-and-ready, but most inefficient habit of relying upon windows only for ventilation. But notwithstanding the defective construction and the want of knowledge referred to, various means have been devised in each workhouse to aid in the work of ventilation. These are cited in detail in the special reports in the Appendix ; and it will here suffice simply to name them. 1. Open fire grates are found in all workhouses, and with very few exceptions in ever) room, whilst in large wards there are usually two. In some, as at Wandsworth, they are very small; and however efficient when a fire is lit, are less effective in the summer time. Stoves have been introduced at Poplar which project into the room, and offer an open fire grate, and a hot plate at the top for the distribution of heat and for warming the dishes ; but whilst I do not doubt their advantage, they are not equal to chimney grates as venti- lators during the summer time. The windows are for the most part double hung, but in some the lower sash is fastened. In several workhouses one or both sashes are fastened by hinges, and fall forwards into the room, either into racks, as at St. George’s Hanover- square, St. George-the-Martyr, and Chelsea, or are held by ropes, as at Newing- ton. Usually the wider opening is at the top, but in a few places, as in the lunacy wards at Camberwell, it is at the bottom, and directs a large body of cold air downwards. At St. George’s at Brompton, each large pane is made to open; and in many workhouses smaller portions of a window than a whole sash