Dr. G.S. Buchanan's report to the Local Government Board upon an outbreak of enteric fever at Wadebridge, in the rural district of St. Columb Major, upon the sanitary condition of the place and upon administration by the St. Columb Major Rural District Council / [G.S. Buchanan].

  • Buchanan, George Seaton, Sir, 1869-1936.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. G.S. Buchanan's report to the Local Government Board upon an outbreak of enteric fever at Wadebridge, in the rural district of St. Columb Major, upon the sanitary condition of the place and upon administration by the St. Columb Major Rural District Council / [G.S. Buchanan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    supply, or as to the other public health aspects of the matter. Being pressed, however, by the local Committee they were moved to apply to the Local Government Board that Wadebridge should be made a Special Drainage District, in order that a public water supply might be provided for it at the cost of its inhabitants. It was then explained to them by the Board that although the formation of a Special Drainage District might be entertained if, in addition to a water supply, the District Council desired to undertake a comprehensive scheme of sewerage and other public works in Wadebridge, yet if water supply alone were in question, the powers which the District Council already possessed under Section 56 of the Public Health Act, 1875, and under Section 9 of the Public Health (Water) Act, 1878, were practically sufficient to enable the cost of a water scheme to be thrown upon the inhabitants of the locality to be benefited. Notwithstanding this assurance, the District Council, alter protracted correspondence with the local Committee, declined to proceed with any water scheme, or to pursue their application for a Special Drainage District. Similar representations since made to them by the Parish Council of St. Breock* have had no better result. Proposed constitution of an Urban District of Wadebridge. In February of this year the Cornwall County Council in pursuance of powers under the Local Government Act, 1888, caused public inquiry to be held at Wadebridge with a view to uniting in a single district, to be called the Wade¬ bridge Urban District, the area enclosed within the red boundary shown on the accompanying map, and comprising that part of the parish of St. Breock, in the Union and Rural District of St. Columb Major, which constitutes Wade¬ bridge, along with that part of the parish of Egloshayle in the Union and Rural District of Bodmin, which constitutes Egloshayle village and Egloshayle Road. Under such Order the proposed Wadebridge Urban District was to form part of the Union of Bodmin. The number of inhabited houses in the proposed district is computed as some 520, and its population as approximately 2,200. At the inquiry certain objections to the suggested Order were made by the St. Columb Rural District Council and by the St. Columb Guardians. The County Council, however, made the Order, which provides that the new district shall come into existence on January 1st of next year. This Order was in July sent by the County Council to the Board, but in the following month both the St. Columb District Council and the St. Columb Guardians petitioned the Board that it should not be confirmed. In September, however, I learnt in Wadebridge from the Chairman and Clerk of the St. Columb District Council that, as they then believed, this Authority does not now desire to pursue its objection to the Order. It is hardly surprising to find that this new attitude is locally construed to mean that the District Council now see that they will not be suffered to continue receiving sanitary rates from Wadebridge while doing little or nothing for the welfare of the place, and that they have come to welcome a scheme which will so speedily release them from the necessity of undertaking a comprehensive scheme of sanitary improvement in the town at the expense of the rates of a larger area. PART II.—THE OUTBREAK OF ENTERIC FEVER. With the assistance of Dr. Mackay, Medical Officer of Health of St. Columb, of Dr. Mudge, Medical Officer of Health of Bodmin Rural District (where infectious maladies are compulsorily notified), and of the two local medical practitioners, I was able to make a list of persons in Wadebridge and Egloshaylef who were pronounced on medical authority to have been attacked by enteric fever during the outbreak. These persons were 50 in number. Probably there were in addition certain mild cases which passed unrecognized. In the case of two children, for instance, I learnt of illness of comparatively short duration, but characterized by symptoms suspicious of enteric fever. But the total number of unrecognized cases in the area in question must needs have been relatively small. . * In April, 18115, the St. Breock Parish Council caused notices to be put up over certain of the public pumps cautioning persons against using the water for drinking. In the absence of an alternative supply, however, this caution has been almost wholly disregarded. t Using “ Egloshayle” to include Egloshayle Road as well as Egloshayle village.