[Report 1899] / Medical Officer of Health, Brentwood U.D.C.

  • Brentwood (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1899] / Medical Officer of Health, Brentwood U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/14 (page 8)
    In this respect the town is well provided for, a cemetery having been recently formed in an eligible ^ position. I may point out here that the town is with- out a Public Mortuary. Burial Grounds. Bakehouses, slaughterhouses, common lodging- Inspect\?n houses, dairies, cowsheds, etc., are now being super- vised. I hope to see a great improvement effected as soon as the new Bye-laws are confirmed by the Local Government Board. The only industries carried on in the town calling for special attention are brewing and the manufacture of agricultural machinery. Before closing my report I should like to point out Disinfection there are no means provided for the disinfection of Clothes, of clo'thes, bedding, etc., after an infectious case. This I consider a serious drawback, as in cases of some infectious diseases, it is otherwise impossible to dis- infect clothes and fabrics, unless they are destroyed—a proceeding which would entail considerable cost. With regard to. the disinfec- tion and cleansing of houses, it is most important that this should be done thoroughly. In a case of Scarlet Fever which was not removed to the Infectious Hospital until after desquamation had begun, I certified that “ the cleansing and disinfection of the house would tend to prevent or check disease,” and recommended that the bed and bed- ding, and all fabrics should be subjected to disinfection by fumigat- ing with a disinfecting gas, and then exposed to an air current for twenty-four hours. All woodwork to be scrubbed with a disinfectant solution and afterwards washed with soft soap and water; and that the ceilings and walls should be scraped and washed with a mixture of hot lime and carbolic acid. To show how necessary it is that these recommendations be carried out tO' the letter, I might point to three instances which came under my own observation during the last few years.