Report to the superintendents and visitors of sections in the recent Sanitary Visitation Movement, with suggestions as to a permanent scheme : also, proceedings of public meeting, and appendix of relative documents / submitted by Dr. Gairdner.

  • Gairdner, W. T. (William Tennant), Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the superintendents and visitors of sections in the recent Sanitary Visitation Movement, with suggestions as to a permanent scheme : also, proceedings of public meeting, and appendix of relative documents / submitted by Dr. Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    by the officer on duty to form a case for his interference In many of the worst courts there is a state of normal uncleanliness (as it might be called) due to the almost incorrigible habits of the population, and nothing short of an influence upon them, extending both to the inside and the outside of the dwelling, will awaken a sense of what is due to decency, and to the comfort of their less degraded neigh- bours. The policeman, observing this daily as a fact beyond his control, becomes gradually accustomed to it; his mind is subdued to what it works in, and from the nature of his official relation to the people, he is disabled from raising them up to a higher level of physical comfort by the only real remedy of friendly personal intercourse, entitling him to give advice. Under these circumstances, I think the Sanitary Visitor, who carries no official prescription, will often be able to awaken a sense of responsibility on the part of the inhabitants of such places for the state even of the exterior of their houses, and to inform them of the means by which grievous faults of cleanliness, &c, are to be remedied. In the main, however, I agree with Mr. Scott, that the chief attention of the Sanitary Visitor, under a permanent Scheme, would be devoted to the interior of the dwelling, and the promotion there of habits of cleanliness, regularity, tem- perance, economy, domestic comfort, and happiness, and all that is connected with these, whether as cause or effect. This feeling has been so eloquently and truly expressed in the recently published Keport of Section I. (see Newspapers of February 23), that it is unnecessary for me to say more than to express my entire concurrence in the statements in the last half of that excellent Report, with the single qualification above-mentioned as to the question of the competency of the Police, unaided, to deal satisfactorily with external nuisances. It is, however, I trust, by no means improbable that time, and a gradually increasing experience, may develop so much additional efficiency in the different departments of the municipal service, as to dispense with any except occasional causes of complaint on the part of Visitors. In the mean-