A note on the sanitation of Calcutta [and other papers] / [by W.J. Simpson and others].

  • Simpson, W. J. (William John), Sir, 1855-1931.
Date:
1893-1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A note on the sanitation of Calcutta [and other papers] / [by W.J. Simpson and others]. 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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    A NOTE ON THE SANITATION OF CALCUTTA. In order that an adequate and comprehensive grasp of the sanitary defects and requirements of Calcutta may be obtained, and an equally com- prehensive conception gained of the important as distinguished from the un- important measures which require to be adopted to remedy the defects and permanently improve the sanitation of the city, it is necessary to give a detailed account of what the Health Department is, what its work consists of, and the sanitary problems with which the Health Officer has to deal. 2. Before doing so, and with reference to the recent reports on the in- sanitary condition of Calcutta, it should introductory Remarks. }qq stated that it was with the assistance of the Medical Inspectors and other officers of the Health Department familiar with the localities surveyed that most of the defects mentioned were recently brought to the notice of the public. Moreover, the special efforts of the Health Department to prevent the introduction of plague into the city gave rise to the special cleansing of Burra Bazar, Jorabagan and other quarters of the town, and tj the appointment of a Superintendent-in-Chief of the Sanitary Department whose reports have once more brought prominently to notice the filthy condi- tion of the overcrowded localities of Calcutta, and the necessity of more supervision for cleansing purposes. Most of the insanitary conditions described by the Sanitary Officers and summarised in the medical letter of the Medical Board have, for many years, engaged the attention of the Health Department with the object of the adoption of measures for their improvement or abolition. They are all, more or less, carefully recorded in the Quarterly and Annual Reports issued by the Health Officer during the past 10 years, and which after discussion by the Commissioners are regularly submitted to Government. It is necessary to point out that it is these reports which have frequently led to important and sometimes acrimonious debates in the Corpora- tion, and which have at times brought Dr. Simpson and the Health Depart- ment into great disfavour on account of the large interests and monetary expenditure which the questions involved ; and that it is due to these reports that some of the most important and extensive sanitary reforms which have been effected in Calcutta during the past 10 years have been brought about. True, the progress has been slow, too slow indeed for the best interests of the town and its inhabitants, and the cause of much plain speaking on the part of the Health Officer, but it is only fair at the beginning of this Note to record what has been done. It is owing to the Health Officer's Reports and the constant relationship shown in them between the prevalence of cholera and scarcity and impurity of water that the water-supply has been improved and increased. It is due also to these reports that the tanks are no longer filled up with the garbage of the cityj a procedure which polluted the atmosphere and contaminated to a far-reaching extent the sub-soil of Calcutta; that a portion of the suburban refuse is incinerated, and that the question of adopting incineration for the whole of the refuse of the city is'now and has been for years under consideration. It is to statements in these reports that the rectification of the drainage of Calcutta and the suburbs chiefly owes its conception and that the several schemes have been, thoroughly considered and latterly hastened on to the adoption of a final plan which the Commissioners have now begun, and which is destined to transform the city and the suburbs in the matter of its sewage disposal and to lessen its death-rate from fever. Lastly, it is due to the same reports which have recorded memoranda, year by year since 1886, on the necessity of a Building Act to regulate the width of streets and the ventilation and distribution of houses in