The differences between the statutes bearing on public health for England and Ireland / by E.D. Mapother.

  • Mapother, E. D. (Edward Dillon), 1835-1908.
Date:
[1864]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The differences between the statutes bearing on public health for England and Ireland / by E.D. Mapother. 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.

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    • The diffet'ences between tlw Statutes heai'ing on Public Health for England and Ireland.—By E. D. Mapother, M.D., Professor of Hygiene E.C.S., Medical Officer of Health, and Surgeon to St. Vincent’s Hospital. [Read before the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society.] No medical practitioner who has treated disease in this country, especially in its populous towns, can have failed to observe the insufficiency of our present legal enactments towards its prevention, i Upon me this conviction has forced itself more urgently since July last, when I was entrusted by the Corporation with the carrying out of the provisions of the Sanitary Acts concerning this city. Having submitted my views to the Committee of the Corporation with whom I have the pleasure of acting, I was directed to draw out a statement of the differences which exist between Public • Health Statutes in England and Ireland, and having done so, I was rejoiced to have been granted this opportunity of bringing the subject forward in this Society, where I enjoy the cooperation of its legal and other members expert in the construction of acts of ^ Parliament. In order to exhibit at a glance the useful statutes from the benefits of which Ireland is excluded, and to systematize ^ the discussion, I have set them forth with their most important ; provisions on this table. i I may mention, as remarkable facts, that the first Sanitary Act ’! for any part of the kingdom (59th Geo. III., c. 41) was passed for Ireland, and an appeal that its operations should extend to England was made by the fauious Dr. Paris and Mr. (afterwards Judge) Eonhlanque ; that the first Parliamentary Reports on Public Health related to Ireland; and, tliirdly, that it was by the notori- ously disgraceful state of a Dublin cemetery, Bully’s-acre, that pub- lic atttention was first awakened to the dangers of intramural sepulture. LAWS FOR ENGLAND ONLY. The Public Health Acts, 1848 and 1858, and with them is amalga- mated the Local Government Act, 1858, which renders legislation for any town inexpensive. Their most important provision is the power of instituting investigations into the health and sanitary regulations of any town or place upon the petition of one-tenth of its inhabitants, or when it appears that its death-rate exceeds 23 per 1000 (17 per 1000 being the standard of health). That many Irish towns demand such inquiries would appear from the follow- ing table, which, by permission of the Registrar-General and the