In many instances little if any sunlight could get to the
courts, and the atmosphere within the dwellings was al
ways foul, owing largely to the saturated condition of the
walls and ceilings, which for so many years had absorbed
the exhalations of the occupants into their porous material.
Singular testimony to the absence of sunlight in these
courts was furnished by the action of the Parks and Gar
dens Committee, who desired to brighten the homes of the
poorest class by gifts of growing flowers and window-
boxes; but these gifts could not be made in courts such as
these, as floivcrs and plants zvcre susceptible to the unwhole
some surroundings, and ivould not live.

George Haw has compiled the following
table on the three St. George s parishes (London
parishes):

/tab\Percentage of
/tab\Population
/tab\Overcrowded
/tab\Death Rate
/tab\per 1000
/tab\St. George s
/tab\St. George s
/tab\St. George s
/tab\West
/tab\IO
/tab\35
/tab\40
/tab\13.2
/tab\23-7
/tab\26.4
/tab\South
/tab\East

Then there are the dangerous trades, in which
countless workers are employed. Their hold on life
is indeed precarious far, far more precarious than
the hold of the twentieth-century soldier on life. In
the linen trade, in the preparation of the flax, wet
feet and wet clothes cause an unusual amount of
bronchitis, pneumonia, and severe rheumatism;

[[257]]

p256 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p257w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p258

v?