Science and City Suburbs 



the last fifty years many definite attempts have 

 been made to improve the dwellings of the poor. 

 First in the field to try and solve the housing 

 problem was not the Government, but individuals, 

 and the names of the Prince Consort, Lord 

 Shaftesbury, Mr. Peabody, Sir Sydney Waterlow, 

 and Miss Octavia Hill are written, if not in short 

 memories, yet in the improved lives of many 

 thousands of people as well as in the raised 

 standard of the public conscience. Being people 

 with business knowledge as well as of philan- 

 thropic instincts, they planned so to build that the 

 undertaking should pay interest on the capital 

 expended. The result was that land being ex- 

 pensive, huge blocks of dwellings arose five, six, 

 seven storeys high in the midst of the most 

 crowded parts of the Metropolis. That such 

 model dwellings, where the people could have 

 two and three rooms, were and are an immense 

 improvement over the homes huddled together 

 in courts and alleys there can be no doubt. 

 Figures that accepted and incorruptible witness 

 testify to the fact. In Finsbury, where Dr. 

 George Newman, the medical officer, has made 

 interesting investigations, it has been found that 

 the death-rate depends on the amount of cubic 

 feet inhabited by the family. 



The following table strikes the imagination as one 

 hears behind it the oft-repeated statement, "Yes, 

 mum! This is all I've got left. I 'ad nine, but 

 buried six." It is mainly by the children's deaths 

 that the disproportionate comparison of 3 from i 



49 D 



