Mr. J. H. Bridges, for twenty years a medical inspector
in the service of the Local Government Board, published on Tuesday a.rather noteworthy letter in the Times. He is not content with the sanitary condition of the great blocks of brickwork built for " flats " which are rising all over London. They are usually built "round an enclosed space, varying from 10 ft. to 30 ft. in diameter, and from 80 ft. to 100 ft. in height, forming an unventilated and unveritilable shaft," into which the kitchens, the offices, and all but the best bedrooms usually look. The mass of stagnant air fosters bacteria, and no Board of Guardians would -allow such an arrangement for a pauper workhouse. The warning is both serious and timely. Londoners have to live in ever-increasing numbers in these " blocks of brickwork," and except as regards the top floors we are renewing in them one main evil of the old slums,—the absence of ventilation. What is the use of draining -so perfectly when the very air you breathe is stagnant, never stirred by a, breeze, and full of the germs of disease? We prescribe fresh air as the cure for consumption, and sleep in the least fresh air we can possibly provide.
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