WHAT WE BREATHE 55 



diseases, whereas the death-rate in tenements con- 

 sisting of one or two rooms was 4-78 per 1,000, it 

 fell to 2-46 in those of three or four rooms, and to 

 1-14 per I, OCX) in those of five rooms and upwards. 

 Again, in the case of acute diseases of the lungs, 

 the death-rate was as high as 9-85 in the smallest 

 tenements, and but 3-28 in the largest. 



Of great interest are the certified mortality 

 statistics of phthisis in the British Army in the 

 period 1830-46 and 1859-66 respectively; in the 

 former it was 7-86 per 1,000, whilst in the latter 

 period it had fallen to 3-1, this important difference 

 being coincident with an increased cubic space per 

 head in the barracks. 



Such facts as these, if only fully realised, should 

 surely serve to stimulate municipal and other 

 local authorities to provide decent and wholesome 

 accommodation for the poor. It has been recently 

 estimated that in London the total number of 

 persons living in tenements of one to four rooms 

 is 2,333,152, and of these nearly half a million live 

 the life of the one - room tenement of three to a 

 room and upwards. In the stirring words of Mr. 

 John Burns, M.P. : " At least a million of people 

 who live thus on wages that barely sustain decent 

 life, are but prisoners of poverty, whose lot in life 

 is but a funeral procession from the cradle to the 

 grave ... for these, as soon as practicable, better 



