[Report 1923] / Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Palatine of Chester / Cheshire County Council.

  • Cheshire County Council
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1923] / Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Palatine of Chester / Cheshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    forms have a wide range and therefore are not good guides to water condition, except to the scientists who can distinguish between the different species of these animals. “These biological iindicators of the oxygen con- dition of a stream and of its availability for fish life, we feel, will be of material aid in determining the harm, if any, done by a given case of pollution. They are aids only. A solitary fragment of sewage fungus does not indicate wholesale destruction of fish life. An evil odour about a polluted stream may come from the factory and not from the wastes which it discharges into the stream. The finding of a few rat-tail maggots in an eddy does not indicate that the whole stream is septic and therefore a bar to fish migration. In the study of stream pollution, as in most other departments of life, an open mind and a little common sense are most valuable assets.” Refuse Removal and Disposal. A fair degree of activity has been shewn in convert- ing those foul and insanitary receptacles, privy-middens, to the water-carriage system. Some Authorities have displayed praiseworthy zeal in this matter and have adopted schemes for the wholesale {abolition of these filthy structures. One of the best recent examples of this forward move is to be found in the Boroug'h of Dukinfield. The task here is a big one but it is being undertaken on really progressive lines and the Corporation are to be congratulated on the bold policy they have adopted. Some districts are hampered by an inadequate supply of water but when this difficulty is removed more progress should be made. It is really remarkable that after the many years in which sanitation has been making progress there should still exist such a large number of these unhealthy abom- inations. I quote a few instances where I think greater progress should be made in conversions to the water-carriage system; —
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