Practical sanitation ; a handbook for sanitary inspectors and others interested in sanitation ... with an appendix on sanitary law by Herbert Manley.

  • Reid, George.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Practical sanitation ; a handbook for sanitary inspectors and others interested in sanitation ... with an appendix on sanitary law by Herbert Manley. 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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    for example, lias thus advanced by leaps and bounds, and this has led to greater precision in the measures adopted to combat it Where formerly we were groping in the dark and guessing at conclusions, we are now able to work on more or less dehnite lines. Again, improved methods of compdmg and studying vital statistics, combined with a better knowledge of disease generally, have been instrumental in the advancement of sanitary le<^islation ; yet, notwithstanding the evidence in favour of tins there are ^eoplL still to be found who ask what good has al this done it may be well, therefore, to review the past, and see what light history can throw upon the question Most peopTe are aware that to filth, in the broad sense of the term must be attributed the pestilence and death ot the dark ages, wLn whole armies were destroyed, when citaes were depopu- Tated, when gaols were death holes, and when the general annual death-rate exceeded 80 per 1,000. _ In 1844, the Health of Towns Commission, ^^^^f J^^^ J^^^^^^^ aniointed mainly owing to the energy and work of Mr. Chad- appomtea ma y . presented their report, and lour ;rar; lat'r, owVng to a choler'a scare, the Public Health Act ^^'yWcrpterwas given to local authorities to bo„ow money for sanitary purposes, bufc m it, as m many of the Acts Stat followed, the word may too often took the place of shall, m fact its adoption was optional in place of being compulsory. In ^instance it was perhaps a fortunate circumstance that it was so for in those days, architects and engineers did not know so, tor, m tiiob« j , channels then generally o7fofnrba lVc^^^^^^ and ill ventilated sewers were Ukl down wS were directly connected by untrapped and since been expendea co » xincrdom in thorough sani- the Local G°y?™°»^'^^'t ii„„es may be made to prove any- tal^Clalevercalesnle improvement may be attributed :-