Report by the Medical Officer on outbreak of enteric fever in Royal and Western Infirmaries, and Fever Hospital, Belvidere, Glasgow, in August, 1884.

  • Russell, James Burn, 1837-1904.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by the Medical Officer on outbreak of enteric fever in Royal and Western Infirmaries, and Fever Hospital, Belvidere, Glasgow, in August, 1884. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    16/16 (page 14)
    was acldresBed to the Clerk of the Local Authority of Kilwinning, as of every authority in Scotland, and informed him as follows :— The provisions of article V. of the Directions and Regulations issued on the 28th July, 1884, shall extend to and include water used in Cow-houses, Dairies, and Milkshops, either by Milch Cows or for the purpose of washing and cleansing vessels intended to contain milk, or for any other purpose connected therewith. Said Article V. enjoins with all the authority of an Order in Council in anticipation of Cholera, and for the second time in two years— V. In any case in which there is any doubt as to the whole- someness of Water used by the inhabitants as a beverage, or for dietetic purposes, the Local Authority shall take immediate steps to ascertain the quality of such Water, and if it shall be certified after analysis by a competent Analytical Chemist or by a qualified Medical Practitioner that the Water of any Well or other source used as a beverage or for dietetic purposes within the jurisdiction of the Local Authority is so tainted with impurities, or otherwise unwholesome, as to bo injurious to the health of the persons so using it, or calculated to promote or aggravate choleraic or other epidemic, endemic, or contagious disease, the Local Authority are hereby I'equired to take prompt measures for procuring wholesome Water to be supplied in its stead, so far as the case requires, to the inmates of the houses situated within the limits of their jurisdiction, and to prevent the use as a beverage or for dietetic purposes of the unwhole- some Water, by shutting up any Well or Wells from which it is drawn, or otherwise as the circumstances may require. If the Medical Oflicer shall have reason to believe that any Water used as above stated is unwholesome, the Local Authority shall at once prevent its use until it has been analysed. The Local Authority put the Circular in their waste basket, and it has been left for you, in self-defence, to obtain these analyses. It now remains for you to forward the results to the Board of Supervision in the hope that some means may by it be found to compel the Local Authority to do their duty. It is by such by-paths that Cholera will find its way into our large cities. JAS. B. RUSSELL. Sanitary DErAUTMENx, 1 Montrose Street, ISlh Sept., 1SS4.