Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon the fatality from "croup", and other throat affections, in the Horwich regestration sub-district / [John Spear].

  • Spear, John.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon the fatality from "croup", and other throat affections, in the Horwich regestration sub-district / [John Spear]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    great difficulty is often experienced by householders in fulfilling this duty. Reform in this direction is greatly needed. Many of the houses of the district are very damp. In the case of new houses the site is never covered with concrete; and even the provision of a damp-proof course in the walls, which latter is required by the byelaws, is sometimes neglected. Some of the houses are small, ill-ventilated, and dirty, and a ceftain number dilapidated. Over-crowding does not appear to be frequent, and the taking of lodgers is a practice much less commonly engaged in than at Horwich. There are no common lodging-houses in the district. The general water supply is from the reservoirs of the Bolton Corporation. It is stated to be a good moorland water, and the service is a constant one. Some outlying and farm houses are dependent upon local wells and ponds, most of these no doubt liable to contamination. The slaughter-houses, of which there are seven in the district, require to be registered and further regulated. They are generally small and ill-ventilated, with more or less dilapidated floors and walls; and the arrangements for offal and manure disposal are so inadequate as to give rise to much nuisance. The dairies, cowsheds, &c., are registered, but little beyond this is accom¬ plished. Some of the cowsheds are very close and ill-ventilated; the milk is sometimes dealt with in places where drainage defects exist, and the water supply is occasionally open to suspicion. The Authority have not as yet made regulations under the Milkshops’ Order. Administration.—The Medical Officer of Health is in private practice, and receives a salary of 201. The Inspector of Nuisances receives a salary of 201.; is school attendance officer (for which a salary of 701. is paid); an in¬ surance agent, &c. He appears to have a good knowledge of his district and to be an energetic officer. The two offices of Clerk and Surveyor are combined. The Sanitary Committee meet monthly, before each meeting of the Authority, and receive the reports of the officers. The byelaws (as to new buildings, &c.), under which they are acting, date back to 1873 and need revision. The dis¬ trict has not been provided with any hospital for isolation of infectious disease, nor with disinfecting apparatus. The hospital at Bolton, four or five miles distant, has on one or two occasions been used for the isolation of small¬ pox patients. Disinfectants (carbolic acid, &c.) are supplied gratuitously by the Authority and used under the direction of the Medical Officer of Health. Lostock Parish, of the Bolton Rural Sanitary District. This parish comprises the remainder of the Horwich Registration Sub-District. It is situated between Horwich and Westhoughton, on the extreme west of the Bolton rural district, and possesses a scattered population of some 800 only. The houses are supplied for the most part with water from the mains of the Bolton Corporation. Privy middens of objectionable type are in use ; house yards are unpaved and often sloppy, and drain nuisances are somewhat common. Two deaths from “ croup ” were registered in this parish, one in July and the other in November 1888. I could not find any connexion between them, and the sufferers occupied houses far removed from each other. They were single cases in the respective families; in one family, however, measles and chicken-pox had just before prevailed; the deceased child having herself passed through an attack of the first-named complaint. In the neighbouring parish of Ravensworth (outside the registration sub-district under report), in a collection of houses about Lostock Junction, sore throat, that I strongly suspect to have been diph¬ theritic, prevailed early in the summer of 1888. Three deaths, all amongst children, were registered from “ croup’’ during the months of May> June, and July. The conditions here, of privy accom¬ modation and drainage, were far from satisfactory. A death was likewise registered from croup in January 1889 in Over Hulton, another neighbour¬ ing parish. There was some suspicion in this case of connexion with a little outbreak of diphtheria (comprising cases already referred to) in the Westhoughton urban district. I bave appended certain vital statistics relating to the two urban districts. JOHN SPEAR.