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9
supply of infected milk. The importance of adequately sterilizing
or pasteurising all milk was repeatedly emphasised by the Medical
Officer of Health and the long list of diseases which can be transmitted
by uncleanly handling was kept well in the public eye.
The Brent flooded during the year no less than 20 times—
due to the "abnormal rainfall." The sewage farm was swamped
and the engines were flooded, thus stopping the workings. Shortly
after this a new system of surface drains to cope with storm water
was constructed and the plant enlarged by the addition of "sludge
presses."
By 1905 Pulmonary Tuberculosis had been recognised as a
serious menace and the Council had arranged for beds in Mount
Vernon hospital to be available for the treatment of certain "poor
and eligible persons." "There are more applications than the
accommodation affords" had a curiously topical ring. "A notice
or placard relative to spitting should be adopted by the Council
and placed in suitable places" was emphasised when some ladies
attending a function at the Town Hall were subjected to "considerable
unpleasantness " !
The outbreak of summer diarrhoea in the hot summer of 1906,
helped speed the formation of a Voluntary Association, "The
Ealing Ladies' Health Society," which was the precursor of our
modern infant welfare clinics. During this year the system of
School Health inspections was started in Ealing.
The "wonderful change which has taken place in the vehicular
traffic in the past 2 years " led to a great increase in the dust
nuisance, so much so that an experimental strip of tar macadam
road was laid down by the cab rank at Haven Green.
By 1910 a School Doctor and Nurse had been appointed,
and the provision of a paid Health Visitor was under consideration.
The infantile mortality had in four years fallen from 91.2 to
65.2 per 1,000.