Dr. H.F. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on the recent prevalence of scarlet fever and diphtheria in the Thorne registration district, and on the general sanitary condition of the sanitary districts comprised therein / [H. Franklin Parsons].

  • Parsons, H. Franklin (Henry Franklin), 1846-1913.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. H.F. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on the recent prevalence of scarlet fever and diphtheria in the Thorne registration district, and on the general sanitary condition of the sanitary districts comprised therein / [H. Franklin Parsons]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    thick and muddy, and unfit for most domestic uses. Some of the houses in Eastoft have no water supply at all, the occupiers having to buy water by the pailful, and then to carry it a considerable distance. Nuisances from foul privy middens, pig-keeping, foul stagnant ditches, and damp dilapidated houses, are of frequent occurrence in the district, the sanitary condition of which in these respects appeared worse than that of any place in the rural district. Little or no action appears to be taken for the abatement of nuisances. The local board have appointed Mr. H. W. T. Ellis, who is district medical officer, medical officer of health, at a salary of 151. The inspector of nuisances receives 101. There is no surveyor, except the foreman of the road labourers. The medical officer of health receives no returns of deaths, nor information as to cases of infectious sickness other than those occurring in his own practice, nor has he considered it his duty to take cognizance of any others. The action taken by the local board in view of the scarlet fever epidemic lias comprised the passing of the resolution before quoted; the fixing of 50 gully traps on drains in different parts of the town, and it is said, the promoting of general cleanliness. No means of hospital isolation exist, nor has any disinfection been carried out, except such as might be done by householders of their own accord, or on the advice of their medical attendants. No action has been taken against persons contravening s. 126 of the Public Health Act, 1875. In one case a man actually suffering from scarlet fever left his bed to attend before the Commissioners of Taxes, the chairman of the local board, who informed me of the circumstance, having been present. The local board have byelaws made in 1868 for regulating the meetings of the board, and with respect to new buildings. The latter, however, contain scarcely any definite requirements, but merely provide that such and such things shall be carried out to the satisfaction of the local board. As an instance of arrangements which apparently are deemed satisfactory a row of substantially built cottages at Crowle Wharf, erected about four years ago, have the privies (which are unceiled and entered from the coal hole) under the back bedrooms and close to the pantry, in such a position that the effluvia from the privies are liable to enter both bedroom and pantry. The well is only five yards distant from two privies. There is one common lodging house in the district; the interior was cleanly kept, but one bedroom was very damp, and the window would not open. Leakage from the privy ran down the ill-paved yard, and a new drain had an inlet so badly put in, that the yard surface around it was already sodden with slops. Recapitulation. 1. Scarlet fever, after two or three years quiescence in the Thorne Registration District, was by some unascertained means introduced into Belton in the winter of 1881-2, and became epidemic throughout the greater part of the district in the follow¬ ing summer and autumn. It has now almost subsided. 2. The propagation of the disease has been effected by the intercommunication of members of infected households with those previously healthy; there being much care¬ lessness in this respect among the inhabitants. The mingling of children of different households at school has had a share in spreading the disease. 3. Diphtheria has prevailed in the district concurrently with scarlet fever, and the two diseases have seemed to be interchangeable, as if the one had been capable of giving rise to the other. 4. The apparent prevalence of “ fever ” has been partly due to a mistake of the registrar, but the mortality from 45 fever ” in the Thorne district is, nevertheless, above the average. Recent outbreaks of enteric fever have been associated with unwhole¬ some conditions, such as exposure to exhalations from defective drains and drinking of polluted water. 5. The action taken by the respective sanitary authorities to prevent the spread of infectious disease has been incomplete; in the Crowle urban district especially, there has been little, if any, attempt to do so. Neither authority possesses any means of isolation, by the prompt use of which in the earlier cases an epidemic might often be prevented. 6. The sanitary condition of both the urban and rural districts is very unsatisfactory, such states of things as damp dilapidated dwellings; foul privies and pigstyes close to C