Dr. Blaxhall's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of Padstow (Cornwall), with reference to an epidemic of typhoid fever in 1876, and to continued prevalence of diphtheria.

  • Blaxhall, F. R.
Date:
1878
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Blaxhall's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of Padstow (Cornwall), with reference to an epidemic of typhoid fever in 1876, and to continued prevalence of diphtheria. 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. Blaxall’s Report to the Local Government Board on the Sanitary Condition of Padstow (Cornwall), with reference to an Epidemic of Typhoid Fever in 1876, and to continued Prevalence of Diphtheria. Edward C. Seaton, M.D., Medical Department, March 13, 1878. Padstow, a small town and Urban Sanitary District in the St. Columb Union, about General two miles from the north coast of Cornwall, is situated partly in a valley which falls description, from the west to the shores of the River Camel on the east, and partly on the slopes of the hills which bound the valley on the north and south sides. The river, after receiving several small tributaries, flows into the sea about two miles to the north of Padstow. The town is very irregularly built, the streets are narrow, and some of them very steep ; it possesses quays, also two or three yards for shipbuilding purposes, and a small basin has been constructed for vessels of light draught. The geological formation is principally Devonian, underlying porous subsoil. The Geology, hill to the north of the town is traversed from east to west by a vein of limestone, while a fault passes in a direction from north-nortli-west to south-south-east, inter- secting the Devonian and limestone rocks, and extending beyond the limits of the town. The population in 1871 amounted to 1,991. The people are chiefly engaged in Population, fishing, shipbuilding, and other maritime employments. Sanitary Conditions. A great number of the dwellings stand in narrow streets or in confined courts or Dwellings, alleys, and have no through ventilation, and no ground space belonging to them. The accommodation in many instances is very limited, consisting of only two small rooms. The flooring of the lower room, usually formed of concrete or stone, is often much broken, as was also observed to be the case in respect of the pavement of certain of the * yards. Many of the dwellings are in a very dilapidated and dirty condition, and not a few suffer from dampness, especially in the lowest parts of the town, owing to the circumstance that at high tides the water of the river flows up the sewers, and forces the inlets of the drains, flooding the yards and basements of the dwellings. Withered’s Alley, Jacob’s Court, and a court in Middle Street may be particularised as affording examples of one or more of the foregoing conditions. The means employed for excrement removal and disposal consists of pails, pan-closets, Excrement and cesspit privies, (a.) The pails were introduced with a view to meet the difficulty 1^raov^ and experienced in providing privy accommodation for such of the dwellings as had no tI*po8a'' ground space attached, but they have been extended to houses where no such obstacle exists; they resemble ordinary slop-pails with covers, and are made use of to receive the contents of the chamber utensils. The pails are obliged to stand in occupied rooms or in the immediate vicinity of the dwellings, but they appear to be kept in a cleanly condition, and to be occasionally used for general purposes. No means of deodoriza- tion are employed. Each morning the pails are placed outside the doors of the dwellings when a scavenger calls round with a large wooden tub, into which he empties the contents and carts them away into the country, where they are stored and sold for agricultural purposes. The process of removal is much complained of as creating nuisance, and apparently not without cause, as the wooden tub above referred to was at the time of my visit saturated with filth, showing that the cleansing of it is greatly neglected although disinfectants are said to be provided for the purpose. (A) The pan closets, as a rule, are external to the dwellings, but a few are situated inside and have no communication with the external air. They discharge into the sewers and are mostly unprovided with means for flushing, the exceptions being where they are in connexion with the rainwater tanks, but in the dry seasons, when the water in the tank fails, the washing down has to be done by hand. It may be observed that this method of discharging excrement into the sewers without adequate provision for flushing the closets, is fraught with serious danger to health, the excrement being liable to lodge and decompose in the drains and sewers. The privy arrangement for some six or eight C. 458. Wt. 13186. X