Dr. H. F. Parson's report on the general sanitary condition of the Bedlingshire urban district, and on the recent prevalence of scarlet fever in the district.

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. H. F. Parson's report on the general sanitary condition of the Bedlingshire urban district, and on the recent prevalence of scarlet fever in the 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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    RECOMMENDATIONS. 1. In all cases where nuisance arises from the ill-paved and uneven condition of hack streets and common court yards, the Sanitary Authority should take steps to cause such streets or yards to be properly levelled, channelled, and repaired or paved. The Authority should also use such means as they possess under the Public Health Act, 1875, to prevent nuisance arising from the scattering of filth and refuse upon the surface of the streets and yards ; and the Authority should make byelaws under section 44 of the -Act. 2. The condition of the sewers of the district should receive the continued attention of the Sanitary Authority and their officers; and if they are found not to act efficiently they should be taken up and relaid on approved principles. They should be provided with means of ventilation by shafts or otherwise, so situated as not to be liable to contaminate the air in the interior or neighbourhood of dwellings. Proper disconnexion of the air of house drains from the air of public sewers should be secured by duly-ventilated traps on the main drains of houses; and generally, in the construction of sewers and house drains, the Authority would do wisely to be guided bv the principles of the Board’s “ Suggestions as to plans of Sewerage and Drainage.” 3. The Urban Sanitary Authority should at once take measures for placing the arrangements for storage and removal of excrement on a more satisfactory footing. The present system of midden privies should be abolished and some better system substituted. If the Urban Sanitary Authority consider that the water carriage system is not adapted to the circumstances of the district, some one of the improved dry systems should be adopted. If privies with fixed receptacles for excrement be retained, they should be constructed on the principles set forth in the official report to the Local Government Board, “ On certain means of preventing excrement nuisances in towns and villages.” The more important of these principles as regards this district are, that the ashpit should be so contrived as to facilitate the mingling of excreta with ashes, that it be reduced to the smallest practicable dimensions, made watertight, roofed in, and ventilated. Some form of the pail closet, in which the excreta are kept apart from the bulk of the dry refuse, will, however, probably be found better adapted to the requirements of the district, owing to the large bulk of cinders which find their way into the ashpits. In either case it will be necessary that the Sanitary Authority, using their power under section 42 of Public Health Act, should themselves make provision for the fre- quent and effectual removal of nightsoil and refuse. 4. The Urban Sanitary Authority should take such steps as may lie in their power under the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act or other Acts, to protect the water of the River Blyth from pollution by sewage or otherwise. All wells or water supplies of a doubtful character should be examined, and if found to be contaminated, should be closed. 5. The byelaws with reference to new streets and buildings, common lodging- houses, and other matters for which the Sanitary Authority are empowered to make bye- laws, should be revised so as to give effect to recent provisions of Public Health law, and to embody the teaching of an enlarged sanitary experience. For this purpose the model byelaws issued by the Board may be consulted with advantage by the Sanitary Authority. 6. The Authority should provide a place for the disinfection, by heat or otherwise, of articles of clothing or bedding which have been exposed to infection, together with a hand-cart, with properly secured lid, for the conveyance of such articles without risk to the public. 7. The Sanitary Authority should provide hospital accommodation for the isolation of persons suffering from infectious diseases who may be without proper lodging and means of isolation at home. As a commencement, under the present circumstances of the district, the Authority might engage a detached cottage in which a man and wife, without family, may reside, to take care of the house when empty, and to nurse any patients that may be admitted. The provision of such accommodation should not be deferred until another epidemic has occurred, as the chief use of such a building is to be in readiness to isolate the first cases of infectious disease that may break out, and thus prevent it from establishing itself in the district. In furtherance of this object, medical practitioners may usefully