Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Sutton bridge urban sanitary district.

  • Parsons, H. F.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Sutton bridge urban sanitary district. 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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    7 The population of Sutton Bridge is too small for it to he worth while to give the hirtli and death rates for each year, but taking the whole of the above-mentioned period, the average yearly rates, as calculated on a mean population of 1,700, have been as follows :— Birth-rate - - - 30 • 0 per 1,000 living. *Deatli-rate - - - 16-8 ,, ,, Deaths under one year old - 11-6 per 100 births. It must be admitted that these rates are not high, all being below the average rates for England and Wales. Hitherto Sutton Bridge has been a rural hamlet rather than a town, having natural advantages in a situation near the sea, a porous soil, and a scattered arrangement of houses ; although little or nothing has been done by those upon whom the sanitary adminis- tration of the place has devolved to protect and supplement these advantages. Sutton Bridge cannot, however, be expected to continue to show a favourable bill of health in future, if it is allowed to grow into a town without any care or supervision over its development; houses being erected without any regard to the principles of health, and the ground being allowed to become saturated with filth, polluting the air and drinking water. Moreover, in its present condition, Sutton Bridge is calculated to form a most favourable hot- bed for the propagation of those diseases which are spread from household to household by the agency of polluted air and drinking-water. It has fortu- nately escaped any epidemic of this nature hitherto, but there is no security that this immunity will continue. Sickness.—Ague, which was formerly prevalent, has now almost dis- appeared here, as in other similar districts, since the draining and cultivation of the Eens A few cases still occur occasionally. The habit of opium eating is said to prevail largely among the elderly people. The certified cause of a death registered this year, was “ habitual use of opium, intestinal obstruction, collapse.” Scarlet fever was prevalent in the district in the winter of 1875-76, and a few cases had recently occurred at the time of this inspection. No deaths have been registered from enteric fever for nine years. One case only has come to the knowledge of the medical officer of health during the present year: the patient was a man employed in removing the niglitsoil from privies. In concluding this report, I have to thank the officers of the Sutton Bridge Local Board, for the assistance courteouslv rendered me durinsr the course of this inspection. H. EEANKLIN PAESONS, M.D. Eecomro endations. 1. The Urban Sanitary Authority should take steps to carry out the duty imposed on them by the Public Health Act, of providing such sewers as may be necessary for the effectual draining of the district. Por this purpose the Sanitary Authority will do well to secure the advice of a competent engineer. When public sewers have been provided the Sanitary Authority should compel the owners of all houses within the prescribed distance to drain their premises into them by properly constructed drains. When this is done, all dry wells and cesspools should be emptied and filled up wdth clean material. 2. The present offensive and dangerous system of privy vaults should be done away with, and some other system substituted in its place which is not open to the same objections of liability to taint the air, subsoil, and drinking- wrater. If fixed receptacles for excrement be retained they should be reduced to the smallest practicable dimensions, kept above the level of the ground, rendered watertight, covered in and ventilated ; they should also be emptied at frequent intervals. Where, however, owing to the scantiness of yard space, the privies are unavoidably placed in close proximity to houses, or have to be emptied by * Tn calculating the death-rate no account has been taken of the deaths of paupers removed into the Union Workhouse at Holbeach ; the number of these is however very small.