Dr Morgan Rees's report to the Local Government Board on conditions of housing and other sanitary circumstances in the St Dogmells Rural District.

  • Rees, Morgan J.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr Morgan Rees's report to the Local Government Board on conditions of housing and other sanitary circumstances in the St Dogmells Rural District. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/16 (page 9)
    Kecently the couucil have engaged the services of a nurse for a case of enteric fever that had occurred in St. Dogmells. No isolation hospital accommodation has been provideiJ. Following upon Dr. Sweeting’s recommendation which was made 14 years ago the council acquired a site of one acre of land for that purpose in the vicinity of Eglwyswrw, and concrete foundations were laid down. Beyond inviting the Cardigan Bural District Council to combine with them tor hospital pur- poses, an invitation which was not accepted, nothing further has been done. Having regard to the condition of cottages and to the prevalence of infectious disease it is on every ground desirable tliat the council should not longer delay to provide hosi)ital accommodation. Medical practitioners practising in the district appear up to now to have been somewhat lax in the matter of notification ot phthisis. Nuisances.—Pigsties are fairly common and are situated in proximity to dwellings and .roads. Owing to the time of the year I saw but few pigs in them, but in the late summer and autumn when the sties are occupied, they must become a source of nuisance. I understand that byelaws with regard to the keeping of swine have been considered, but were not pursued on the ground that they would only permit the keeping of swine at a prohibitive distance from dwellings. There is however no occasion for such a provision, and byelaws to secure the main- tenance of pigsties in a cleanly and wholesome condition could be adopted with advantage. Other nuisances observed were due to overflowing pails in pirivies, but these were not many; objectionable accumulations of house-refuse in gardens are also met with and instances of slop water being thrown on the roads and into streams. At St. Dog- mells the water-closets of the workhouse are drained directlv into a stream. Sanitary Administration. The medical officer of health. Dr. David Havard, M.D., D.P.H., receives the salary of £50 per annum, part of which is repaid out of county funds. He holds the appointments of medical officer and public vaccinator for the Newport district of the Cardigan Union and is engaged in private practice. His annual reports have directed the attention of the council to fihe need of reforms in certain directions, notably the provision of an isolation hospital, improvement in scavenging, and the prevention ot pollution of water supplies. In regard to housing he has personally inspected a large number of houses in the vicinity of Newport and has pointed out to his council the necessity for taking action. The inspector of nuisances, Mr. Ivor Edgar Griffitli George, who holds the certificate of the Hoyal Sanitary Institute, receives a salary ot £55 per annum, part of which is repaid out of county funds. He holds otlier appointments, namely, inspector - of new buildings in the St. Dogmells Ilural District, a duty which he appears to consider covered by his salary as inspector of nuisances; inspector of new buildings in the Cardigan Hural District, £5 per annum; and inspector of nuisancea in the .S0357 B