"Our intrusive visits, as some would call them, into filthy and diseased houses, benevolent as they are, on behalf of those who cannot always help themselves, have example even in the most remote times and from the highest authority. The ancient authority was more imperative, and made it more a matter of conscience. In the ancient Jewish law it was ordained 'that he that owneth the house shall himself come and tell the Priest, saying: "It seemeth to me there is, as it were, a plague in the house."' The Priest was then to command the emptying it, so that "all in the house be not made unclean." He was then to cause it to be scraped within and about, and finally he was to pronounce when the house was clean, and might be again inhabited. "The Priest was, you perceive, the Medical Officer of Health under the Jewish law, and this text of Leviticus is the 13th section of the Diseases Prevention Act.... "From what I see of the parish we cannot without inconveniently close packing hold many more.[79] "The growth of our parish is not from births alone; some persons of course immigrate from other parts of England, but the greater part come from Ireland, bringing with them disease and poverty.... "I am afraid that the poor of other parishes are forced upon us. We increase in poverty, and, paradoxical as it looks, the poorer we get the more we shall have to pay. "There are now from 6-7,000 cases of illness per year attended by the poor-law surgeons. "Our poor work at the waterside, in the city, and at the docks; their productive labour helps to pay the rates of other parishes, but in difficulty and sickness they live and lean upon us. "Now as to _overcrowding:--_ In Lewisham there are 2 persons to an acre. " Camberwell " 13 " " " " Rotherhithe " 21 " " " " All London " 30 " " " " Newington " 104 " " " While we have 184 " " " And in one of the parts of the parish 244 " " " "Our parish is now almost completely built over. "In 1850, out of 1,169 deaths 565 (or one half) were under 5 years. "In Bermondsey, 506 out of 983. "Our parish and Bermondsey are quite ahead (of others) in this unenviable race towards death." "The contents of our sewers can only be discharged 4 hours each tide--8 hours each day--the remaining 16 hours daily they are reservoirs of stagnant sewage." "We are sadly deficient in sewers. At least 100 courts, alleys, and back streets are entirely without drainage.... Some of our sewers have remarkably little incline. That in Friar Street, a most important one, is so level from Bean Street to Suffolk Street that it has a most curious quality for a sewer, that of flowing either way equally well. "One very prevalent evil is loose brick drains which let the deadly gases into houses."