[Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Wells City.

  • Wells (England). City Council.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Wells City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CITY OF WELLS. URBAN SANITARY AUTHORITY. MEDICAL OFFICER’S REPORT FOR 1894. To The Urban Sanitary Authority, Wells. January 21st, 1895. Gentlemen, I beg to present my Annual Report for 1894. Following the order observed by the County Council in their Annual Abstract, I first mention— The Geology of the District (as detailed in former Reports) “chiefly Red Marl, with Beds of Gravel, &c., and towards the Mendip range, Lias and Limestone.” Occupation of Inhabitants, “Agricultural, &c.” Water Supply.—The great majority of Houses are supplied by the Water Company, the number gradually increasing. Drainage is on the whole improving year by year ; House Drains have in several instances been Examined and Cleansed. The extension of the Deanery Sewer, will, I am informed be taken in hand forthwith. With regard to Ventilation of the Sewers : the surface gratings have been generally removed, those only remaining which are on the outskirts of the City, and are not so objectionable, save one at the top of New Street, of which complaint has been made. I should recommend that a good sized pipe ventilator be substituted, if practic¬ able, especially as this point is the highest level of the sewer. I have received no complaint of the ventilating pipes being a nuisance since my last Report, and the one particularly mentioned in that Report, as being, with the dwelling house adjacent, about to be examined by an Expert, has been so examined, his Report coincided with my expressed opinion, in nearly every particular. Prevalence of Disease.— Scarlatina and Measles have been epidemic. As to the former, in the first known case the patient had been to Weston shortly before the eruption appeared, and might very possibly have been exposed to infection there or during the journey. The parents being at first unaware of the nature of the illness, she came in contact with other children, before she was seen by the Medical Man who notified the case to me : precautions were at once taken as to Isolation and Disinfection, but the disease had been already communicated toothers, and cases occurred almost simultaneously in several parts of the City. I have also reason to think that some cases occurred, where no medical opinion was had, and no notification was made ; the evidence was not sufficiently reliable for any legal steps to be taken, but in one case where a lad had been sent to school while Scarlatina was in his house and who had communicated the disease to others—the Father was summoned before the