[Report 1874] / Medical Officer of Health, Macclesfield Borough.

  • Macclesfield (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1874] / Medical Officer of Health, Macclesfield Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    5th.—The Working Men’s Dwellings Act -which facilitates the erection of dwellings for working-men on land belonging to municipal corporations. 6th—The Alkali Act Amendment Act which imposes ad¬ ditional limitations to the noxious gases discharged from chemical works, and extends the provisions so as to apply to gases other than muriatic acid gas. 7th.—The Sanitary Law Amendment Act which amends several of the provisions of the Sanitary and Public Health Acts, which were defective, and gives additional powers to Sanitary Authorities, of which the most important is the power to interfere with polluted wells. It is provided that if it is represented to a Sanitary Authority that the water in any well, tank, or cistern, is so polluted as to be in¬ jurious to health, they may apply to the Magistrates for an order to remedy it. The Magistrates are then to summon the person interested in the well, and may if they think fit, order the well to be closed either permanently or temporarily, or may direct the water to be used for certain purposes only. All of these new enactments seem to have been called for by the exigencies of the time and will although they may not be perfect and complete measures, assist the promotion and preservation of public health, and the social and sanitary well-being of the people. It is not however, by merely placing laws such as these on the statute book of the realm, but by the judicious local administration and enforce- ment of them, that lives are prolonged and the health of the com¬ munity improved. I am reminded of this by the fact that Macclesfield is still unprovided with those means for the isolation of the infected sick and dead, and for the destruction of infection, pointed out to the Board in November, 1873. (See Appendix.) THE POLLUTION OF THE RIVER. The polluted state of the rivers, not only of our own river the Bollin, but all the rivers flowing through manufacturing towns, is much to be regretted. By allowing sewage and trade refuse to flow into a river an enormous amount of manure is lost which agriculture re¬ quires, and the value of which is considerable ; the water is spoilt for all domestic and many manufacturing purposes; and the atmosphere