Dr. R. J. Reece's report to the local government board on the epidemic of enteric fever in the city of Lincoln, 1904-5.

  • Reece, Richard J.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. R. J. Reece's report to the local government board on the epidemic of enteric fever in the city of Lincoln, 1904-5. 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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    mains, to two reservoirs situated on high ground on opposite sides of the City ; from the reservoirs, which between them hold roughly one day’s supply, the water gravitates to the town and district when pumping ceases, or when the demand for water exceeds the quantity pumped from the waterworks. The Lincoln water mains extend into the Bracebridge Urban District, and into New Boultham, and, with the exception of a few scattered houses on the outskirts which obtain their water from local wmlls, the water from the Lincoln Corporation Waterworks constitutes the supply of these places. It is also supplied to the Bracebridge Lunatic Asylum and to twenty-live private residences in the Branston Rural District outside the area of New Boultham. A full account of the water supply is given in Appendix I.* 'Hie Sewerage System.—The City of Lincoln is sewered practically throughout its inhabited area. The branch sewers join up to two main sewers, which in turn are connected with a large tank, from which the sewage is raised by pumping to the sewage farm on the outskirts of the City. After treatment at the sewage farm, the sewage effluent is discharged into the Sincil Dyke, which opens to the River Witham some miles below the City. To this sewerage system are connected the sewers of the Bracebridge Urban District and of New Boultham. All the houses in New Boultham and 90 per cent, of those in Bracebridge are drained to sewers that connect with those of Lincoln. The sewers in the two last-mentioned areas, as well as in Lincoln, are for the most part ventilated by road gratings, but in the central part of the City ventilating shafts have been substituted. Certain sewers are flushed auto- matically, others are flushed with water from carts. In certain parts the rain water and road washings are dealt with by a separate system of sewers, which discharge into the River Witham. House Drainage, Disposal of Excrement and Refuse.—In Lincoln, Brace- bridge, and New Boultham, houses generally drain to glazed earthenware socketed pipes; ventilation of house drains and disconnection of houses from sewers are commonly satisfactory, save that where outdoor waterclosets exist, disconnection from the sewer is, as a rule, dependent on one trap. Lincoln is mainly a watercloset town, and most of the waterclosets are situated outside the houses. In Bracebridge, on the other hand, some two-thirds of the houses are served by vault privies, while in New Boultham about 60 per cent- have waterclosets. A detailed description of the sewerage, house drainage, and methods of disposal and removal of excrement and refuse is given in Appendix II. Causation of the Fever. In endeavouring to account for the origin and spread of the fever which, in epidemic form, invaded the City of Lincoln, the Bracebridge Urban District, and New Boultham, in the circumstances that have been described, no agency can be regarded as affording a satisfactory explanation unless it be common to the three invaded areas, and of a sort capable of disseminating the malady in a fashion not inconsistent with the facts observed. Regarded from this point of view, unwholesome conditions of individual dwellings and their surroundings may be dismissed from consideration, as not conceivably serving to account for more than a fractional portion of the epidemic. So also with particular methods of excrement disposal, regarding which, however, there is, it may be noted, material difference in the three areas involved. There remain for consideration, among the agencies commonly regarded' as apt to be associated, in causative fashion, with prevalence of enteric fever, milk, sewerage and drainage, and water supply. “ This water supply has not in the past been considered satisfactory, and the circum- stances associated with it have from time to time been brought to the notice of the City Council by the Local Government Board. See especially pp. 27 and 28.