London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Finchley 1908
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Finchley]
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94
the premises. These visits were rather more numerous than
in previous years owing to the additional work caused by the
outbreak of Typhoid Fever.
In regard to the measures taken to prevent the spread
of infectious disease, no fewer than 6,410 articles were
removed to the Council's disinfecting station and passed
through the steam disinfecting apparatus, 334 rooms were
fumigated with formic aldehyde vapour, and the walls of the
rooms were stripped and cleansed where necessary.
In addition to the action taken in respect to the
scheduled infectious diseases, every endeavour is made to
prevail upon householders to allow proper disinfection to be
carried out by the department after such diseases as
Consumption and Cancer, for which no charge is made by the
Council.
As a result of the inspection of the infected houses the undermentioned sanitary defects were discovered by your inspectors and satisfactorily remedied by the owners or occupiers:—
| Defective Drains | 6 |
| Defective W.C's. | 13 |
| Defective soil pipes and ventilating shafts | 13 |
| Defective fresh air inlets to drains | 4 |
| Blocked drains | 2 |
| Defective curbs or paving round gullies | 9 |
| W.C. flush boxes out of repair | 12 |
| Defective and untrapped waste pipes | 30 |
| Insanitary stone troughs | 9 |
| Defective rain water guttering and stack pipes | 9 |
| Defective yard paving | 17 |
| Defective scullery floors | 4 |
| Defective house roofs | 8 |
| Dirty ceilings and walls of rooms | 28 |
| Dirty condition of service water cisterns | 7 |