Dr. Parsons's report to the local government board on scarlet fever in the Huntingdon registration district.

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Parsons's report to the local government board on scarlet fever in the Huntingdon registration 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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    Dr. Parsons’s Report to the Local Government Board on Scarlet Fever in the Huntingdon Registration District. George Buchanan, Medical Department, 13th November, 1880. The inspection, of which the results are contained in the following report, was ordered in compliance with a request of the Huntingdon Rural Sanitary Authority. On August 28th, 1880, that Authority wrote to the Local Govern- ment Board that scarlet fever had been raging since April in the boroughs of Huntingdon and Godmanchester, and was now spreading from these boroughs into the surrounding villages within the jurisdiction of the Huntingdon Rural Sanitary Authority; that the Rural Authority were thus directly interested in every effort being made to stamp it out; and that, moreover, both these boroughs being, for poor law purposes, within their jurisdiction, the care and relief of all the pauper cases fell upon them as Guardians. They there- fore requested that an inspector might at once be sent down to investigate the causes of the outbreak, and of its long continuance, and to ascertain whether proper precautions had been taken to stop its spreading. The inspection was commenced forthwith. General Description. The Registration District (Union) of Huntingdon, in the county of the same name, has an area of 76,446 acres. The population was, in 1861, 20,518 ; in 1871, 20,711. With the exception of the boroughs of Huntingdon and Godmanchester, it is for sanitary purposes under the Guardians as Rural Sanitary Authority. The surface in the north-eastern portion of the district is level fenland (peat), but in the neighbourhood of Huntingdon it is slightly undulating, and composed of a stiff blue clay (Oxford clay), with deposits of alluvium and river gravel in the valleys of the Ouse and subsidiary streams. The population, with the exception of the usual tradesmen and professional men, is purely agricultural. The Registration District is divided into four sub-districts, which are also the divisions for which the several Medical Officers of Health act; two of these divisions are, however, held by one officer ; and the boroughs of Huntingdon and Godmanchester appoint their Medical Officers of Health independently. The Huntingdon sub-district, with which this report will be almost exclu- sively concerned, contains the Ovo boroughs of Huntingdon and Godman- chester, which together form the Parliamentary borough of Huntingdon, but for municipal purposes are distinct; it includes also several villages which are under the jurisdiction of the Huntingdon Rural Sanitary Authority. Huntingdon and Godmanchester are almost contiguous, being divided only by the River Ouse, which is crossed by a bridge. Both places are situated on a bed of river-gravel, resting on the Oxford clay ; the site of Godman- chester being very low and flat, that of Huntingdon slightly elevated. There are a carriage manufactory and breweries in Huntingdon which employ some hands ; there are also the usual official, professional, and commercial residents of a county town, but the bulk of the population in the sub-district belong to the agricultural class. The acreage and population of the Sub-district are as follows:— Place. Area in Acres. Population. 1861. 1871. Huntingdon Borough - 1,116 3,816 4,243 Godmanchester Borough - 4,970 2,438 2,363 Rural portion - 13,787 3,114 3,099 Whole Sub-district - 19,873 9,368 9,705