Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the general sanitary circumstances and administration of the rural sanitary district of Dartford, and on an outbreak of diphtheria in the parish of Swanscombe.

  • Thorne, R. Thorne (Richard Thorne), Sir, 1841-1899.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the general sanitary circumstances and administration of the rural sanitary district of Dartford, and on an outbreak of diphtheria in the parish of Swanscombe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    is often conveyed direct into a dwelling room, leads, even where traps are fitted over the sink inlet, to a nuisance, perhaps even of a graver character than that resulting from the common privy. Some of these pan-closets too, were found in a most dilapi- daindsomeefew instances, I found that an effort had been made by certain individuals to deal with the difficulty as to excrement disposal by providing closets, the contents of which it was intended should be regularly mingled with ashes and dry refuse. But in the absence of any local information as to the sanitary principles to be attended to in the construction of such closets, the method adopted lias been faulty and the object aimed at has not been attained. Thus, in one locality, the privy pit, instead of being limited to a space situated entirely beneath the closet seat, and having i s floor above the level of the surrounding soil, was found to consist of a cemented tank sunk below the e-round level, and placed behind the closet, the two communicating by means of a shelving slide, from which the tenant has found it necessary to swill down the excre- ment. In this way the tank has simply become a cesspool half full of liquid and rapidly Theoremaining closets in the district are ordinary waterclosets, also emptying into cesspools. In some instances the soil-pipe was found to be continued about the roof of the house, but always by means of a pipe of a less diameter than the soil-pipe, and often having a number of right angles or curves in its course, thus hindering the { *5. The Sanitary Authority and its Officers.—The Guardians of the Dartford Union constitute the Sanitary Authority, but they have delegated their powers, under Sec ion 201 of the Public Health Act, 1875, to a Committee consisting of eight elected and four ex-officio Guardians. This Committee meets on the same day as that on which they meet as Guardians, and at a later hour than the meeting for poor-law purposes. The sanitary work of this Committee is done at irregular intervals. On an average there appear to be eleven meetings in the year. Once during the last two years the Committee met on two consecutive weeks, but so long an interval as seven weeks has elapsed without any meeting. Four out of five of the poor law medical officers of theP union have been appointed to be Medical Officers of Health, and there are two Inspectors of Nuisances. The Medical Officers of Health receive regular returns of lath from the registrars, and when a death from infectious disease occurs they take steps, in conjunction with the Inspector of Nuisances, for the disinfection of thenremises unless they have reason to believe that proper advice in this matter has been riven by the mediral practitioner in attendance on the case. It is also an under- stendfng that as occasion occurs, they are to aid the Inspectors of Nuisances by advising them ol such points having a medical bearing, as may be brought before them They keep a record of the principal action they take m the sanitary administration of them districts, and in certain instances they also communicate in writing with the Sanitary Authority as to any special action which they deem necessary. But being engaged in somewhat extensive private and poor-law practices they are not asked to attend he meetings of the Sanitary Authority, and thus they have no ready means of adrisin* them as to any action which the Authority may be proposing or may have under consideration. The Inspectors of Nuisances do not give their whole time to to duties under the Sanitary Acts. They both exhibited considerable knowledge Is to the sanitary circumstances of their districts, but it became evident during he course of my inquiry that many conditions needing the active intervention of the Snnbarv Authority remained undetected in the course of the ordinary inspections mTde by Inspector! of Nuisances, whose duties cannot be efficiently performed un ess to arl required periodically to make detailed inspections, and to record the result of these Inspections in a book which should be regularly submitted to the Authority. At prefe even their ordinary report books, in which are entered up lie cases ,n which Sot have found it necessary to take some action, are not necessarily submitted to the Authority only those instances in which them instructions have not been complied with i toeyin which some special action is deemed necessary being brought under the notice of the Authority in separate communications. Owing to under the d'[,^A,!‘niTcmiId hardly'liave^ieen sanctioned, except after some been submitted to the 3 ’ . rri-ma instances came under my ckillpd ndvice bad been procured as to its propriety, lnus instances came unuer my notice in which after the prevalence in a house of some infectious disease, such as enteric fever! measures invoking some considerable expem>e have 'been a<iopt^ed which ,pwfl matters if not worse, at least quite as bad as before, faulty drains, ror example, toe b“en replaced by other meanstf drainage, so constructed as to place the interior