Dr. Parson's report to the local government board on the prevalence of scarlet fever and "fever" in the Llanelly urban sanitary district.

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Parson's report to the local government board on the prevalence of scarlet fever and "fever" in the Llanelly urban sanitary 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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    eating with this drain is situated in an outbuilding into which the back door of the house opens. Forth tyxvyll, Water St.—Death from enteric fever in October 1879. Houses old and dilapidated, without through ventilation, in a narrow court, shut in by high walls and approached only by an archway in which the watercloset is situated. Drainage through an old square stone drain; leakage from a privy belonging to an adjoining house runs over tlie surface of the court. 20, Mansel St,—A death certified from typhoid fever in May 1879. Watercloset in back yard, handflushed, the pan loose, said never to have been cemented down, allowing a powerful current of sewer air to come up from under the seat. The cases in which conditions of this kind were found were mostly of recent occurrence; it is not improbable therefore that such conditions may have existed in some of the earlier cases, in which, owing to alterations having been subsequently made or to the parties having removed, no local cause could be made out. There were two instances in which two cases of fever had occurred in particular houses at intervals of many months, indicating some local cause no longer discoverable. (b.) A part of the town called Sea-side, in which many cases have occurred, is built upon an artificial site consisting of loose blocks of slag. Until recent years the mode of excrement disposal in this part was by means of cesspits and middens ; when the cesspit was full a hole was made in the bottom with an iron bar, and the contents were allowed to sink away among the slag. House slops were, and are still partly, disposed of in the same way. At one house visited a water pipe had been burst by the frost, and a copious stream issued from it into a hollow place in a corner of the yard where a flag had been removed ; the water at once disappeared into the ground, but there came up from the point of disappearance a strong sewer-like smell, probably from the ground-air displaced by the stream of water. An open middenstead was seen which received the slops and surface water of the back yard, the tricklings from a leaky tap, and the drip off the privy roof; it was nevertheless quite dry, all the water draining away at once into the slag. In this way the hollow foun - dation of the houses will have become highly impregnated with excremental filth, the emanations from which must have been drawn up into them. The cesspits have now for some years been abolished and replaced by “ Board- pails ” or waterclosets; but the effects of the old accumulations could not Idc expected to cease immediately thereupon. It is to be noted, -however, that the cases of enteric fever in this part of the town occurred chiefly in 1877, the earliest year of the period taken, and have since diminished rapidly year by year. (c.) It appears probable that in some instances local contaminations of the water in the ultimate ramifications of the pipes may have occurred. A few closets are still flushed directly from the wafer pipes by means of a screw- down tap, often found to be left running. In such cases it was found that on drawing water from a tap nearer the mains, the stream from the tap in the watercloset greatly diminished or ceased. It does not appear possible that a re- flux from the watercloset into the pipes could take place from this cause alone, for the house tap is usually on a higher level than the watercloset seat. If, however, the main supplying a particular street were shut off, as occasionally must happen for repairs, or to make connections with new houses, an escape of water at a lower level would necessarily cause a suction into the pipes at any tap which might happen to be open, and in this way foul matters from the watercloset pans might be sucked up and distributed with the water from neighbouring taps. In one house in which a death from enteric fever had ocem^red, the watercloset, which was in a dirty state, being placed in such a situation as to be open to the use of passers-by in the street, was flushed by a screw-down tap ; on drawing water from the house tap that in the closet ceased to run. In some instances due eare does not appear to have been taken to place the water-pipes in a safe position; in one case the water from a leaky pipe was seen welling up through a heap of ashes and house refuse. (d.) After making all allowance for local causes of the kinds described there still remain a certain proportion of cases in which nothing could be made out respecting the mode of causation, in some from the parties having left; in others probably owing to the disease having been contracted in some way not now discoverable, e.g., by personal communication. How far any