In Poplar, 2,114 houses were inspected, of which only 334 were found to be in good order. In Lambeth, six men were engaged temporarily for the purpose of a special inspection. "11,493 houses were visited; 5,594 required sanitary improvements.... In many houses several defects were reported, bringing up the total of sanitary improvements to 12,014." In Bermondsey, no fewer than 5,992 notices were issued for the execution of sanitary works which were required. The Sanitary Act of 1866 had enacted that-- "It shall be the duty of the Nuisance Authority to make, from time to time, either by itself or its officers, inspection of the district with a view to ascertain what nuisances exist calling for abatement under the powers of the Nuisances Removal Acts, and to enforce the provisions of the said Acts in order to cause the abatement thereof." But by many Vestries the duty had been either entirely neglected or very imperfectly performed. The Medical Officers of Health were unceasing in pressing upon their employers the necessity of inspection. "It is only by the constant inspection and re-inspection of property inhabited by tenants of this class (tenement-houses) that the houses can be kept in decent sanitary condition," wrote the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green. "My opinion of the value of regular house-to-house inspection throughout the year," wrote the Medical Officer of Health for Poplar, "is more confirmed than ever, and that such is needed for the proper sanitary supervision of the district." "It is by constant inspection," wrote another Medical Officer of Health, "that the Vestry can best do its duty in preserving the lives and health of its parishioners." "Facts are stubborn things," wrote the Medical Officer of Health for St. Mary, Newington, after 28 years' sanitary work himself, "and they clearly demonstrate the necessity for a continual supervision of the dwellings of the poor (more especially) and for as constant an attack on all removable insanitary conditions. This after all is the real work to be done." But the Vestries and District Boards paid little heed to this advice. Naturally, inspection was not welcome to sanitary defaulters or misdoers; naturally, the light of the sanitary policeman's lantern into the dark places of slum-owners and 'house-knackers' was resented. It was an invasion of the rights of property, of the privacy of an Englishman's home, even if he did not live in that home himself, but let it to somebody else to live in. "Why should not a man do as he liked with his own?"