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18
The amount and fatality of general sickness was slightly
higher than the average, but the amount of Epidemic diseases
was much less, while the fatality from them was upwards
of one-third less than the average; these diseases
during the past year having numbered 247 with 5 deaths,
while the average of the past 10 years was represented by
309 cases and 10 deaths.
Sanitary Proceedings.—A summary of the principal
sanitary proceedings carried out during the year, is contained
in Table 6, in the Appendix. In addition to these,
all the slaughter-houses and cow-houses in the parish, 33
in number, were as usual examined and specially reported
on, previous to the renewal of their owners' licenses. The
bake-houses also, 22 in number, were examined and reported
on as possessing the sanitary conditions required
oy the Act of Parliament. Attention was directed in
June last, to the circumstances of a grave nuisance, with
resulting injury to health, arising from the non-interment
of a corpse lying at a house in Malva street, and which
forcibly illustrated the great necessity which exists, as I
have repeatedly pointed out in these reports, and of which
the late Cholera Epidemic presented ample confirmation,
for a public Mortuary in this parish. (See Annual Report
for, 1859.)
Repeated complaints have been made, and very justly
so, by inhabitants of the town, of the very serious nuisance
arising from the sewer gases which escape from the ventilating
gratings of the main sewers. As I have pointed
out in my last and preceding Annual Reports, a sufficient
and continuous flow of water is what is most needed for
the prevention of the evil, and which would reduce the
necessity for ventilation to a minimum, not only by a
more rapid removal of the sewage, but by the absorption
of gases and the prevention of decomposition. For it is
evident that water, being the vehicle which has taken the
place of the horse and cart of the old system, forms the
most important element in the present system of sewerage,
and, to be efficient in the performance of the work assigned
to it, must be of a sufficient quantity for the purpose.