Dr. R.J. Reece's report to the Local Government Board on fever prevalence at Aldbrough, in the Skirlaugh rural district.

  • Reece, Richard J.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. R.J. Reece's report to the Local Government Board on fever prevalence at Aldbrough, in the Skirlaugh rural district. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    OFFICIAL COPY. . * ' • • I v. ■ * Dr. R, J. Reece’s Report to the Local Government Board on Fever Prevalence at Aldbrough, in the Skirlaugh Rural District. W. H. Power, Assistant Medical Officer, April 25th, 1898. In the first quarter of the year 1897, the Board received a communica¬ tion from the Vicar of Aldbrough to the effect that there had been cases of enteric fever in the parish, that the Rural District Council had been informed, and that as a result a visit had been made to that village by the Medical Officer of Health, who had reported to the Council the extremely unsatisfactory sanitary conditions of certain houses affected. The vicar, however, added that no steps had been taken to practically amend the very serious conditions disclosed. The Board forwarded a copy of the Vicar’s letter to the Skirlaugh Rural District Council, and requested that the District Council would instruct their Medical Officer of Health to prepare a report upon the cases of fever therein referred to and on the sanitary condition of the premises in question. This report was furnished to the Board in the second quarter of the year, and the District Council at the same time wrote to the Board, stating that the Inspector of Nuisances had been directed to serve the necessary notices for the provision of a proper water suppl ,r in the cases referred to, and also requiring the removal of the existing nuisances. Whether the sanitary improvements indicated in this letter were satisfactorily carried out will be shown by the con¬ dition of affairs discovered at my inspection, and hereafter set forth in this report. The report of the Medical Officer of Health showed that a considerable difference of opinion existed between him and the local medical practitioner as to the exact nature of the disease prevalent in the village, and that the sanitary circumstances of the invaded houses were unsatisfactory. Under the circumstances the Board considered that an inspection of the village should be made by one of the Board’s Medical Inspectors. Owing to the exigencies of the service no Medical Inspector could he spared for this duty until November 1897, when I was instructed to undertake the inquiry. Aldbrough is a village situated, about 1^ miles from the sea, on a slight eminence of gravel overlying boulder clay. The highest point in the village is some 60 feet above Ordnance Datum, and the surface of the gravel upon which most of the dwellings stand slopes northward towards a brook, the Lambwath stream, traversing the boulder clay from east to west, at about 34 feet above Datum. The limit of the gravel capping the.eminence occupied by the village LONDON: PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S ST AT ION ERY OFFICE, By DARLING & SON, Ltd., 1-3, Great St. Thomas Apostle, E.C. And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C.; and 32, Abingdon Street, Westminster, S.W.; or JOHN MENZIES & Co., 12, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, and 90, West Nile Street, Glasgow; qr HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., Limited, 104, Grafton Street, Dublin. 1898. No. 128. 15418—375—1/98 Wt 20667 [Price. Fivepence.] D fc S 19 i V . J .1 WELLCOME library 'General Collection* +P