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13
Comprise, among other important measures, the reduction of overcrowding in
the large number of 213 instances, the ventilation of 162 rooms, the improvement
of water supply to 322 houses, the amendment (exclusive of mere
trapping) of 312 house drains, and the clcansing of 1067 houses or parts of
houses. This amount of work has been procured by 880 notices, which were
almost all obeyed, though in 183 cases so tardily that second notices or letters
of reminder were required. Only ten owners were summonsed before magistrates,
and in all these cases a penalty was inflicted. These figures give
evidence at once of the diligence of the inspectors, and of the forbearance of
the Board in using any harsh measures where owners can be made to keep
their property in decent order by other means. But it is also plain how much
need there is for inspection to be very extended, very systematic and very
frequently repeated.
Last year, after commenting on some similar facts, the following was
written:—"Unless alaw, much more stringent than any at present in force,
should be enancted to fine any owner whose premises are found in a filthy
state, it does not appear that more rapid action can be taken by an Inspector
to prevent nuisances than has been taken in the past year. But some such
law really is wanted, for there are numerous streets where, as soon as the
Inspector's back is turned, nuisances reaccumulate in every house as a matter
of course, until he again comes that way."
In 1866 a most important amendment of the sanitary laws was made by
the " Sanitary Act," of which § 35 gives precisely the powers which, not
last year only, but every year since the constitution of the Board, the Medical
Officer has demanded for the efficient discharge of his functions in respect of
houses inhabited by the poorer classes. That section has given to the local
authority the power of making bye laws for the regulation of sublet houses
and of enforcing the observance of it rules by penalties. In St. Giles' District
it is this class of houses almost exclusively which need the supervision
of the sanitary authorities, and which become, without that supervision, nests
of filth and disease. Accordingly, soon after the passing of the Sanitary Act,
bye-laws were prepared, adopted by the Board and sanctioned by the Secretary
of State for the regulation of sublet houses. It will now not be the
fault of the law if St. Giles' does not make rapid strides towards decency in
its worst quarters, and towards a lower rate of mortality than it has yet had.*
Nor is § 35 the only clause of the Sanitary Act, of which the enforcement
is calculated greatly to benefit St. Giles' District. Other clauses confer
on the Board powers to order disinfection of houses where there has been
contagious disease; to provide carriages for the conveyance of infected
persons; to remove to hospital persons suffering from contagious diseases
when they are not properly lodged, and to provide, when necessary,
hospital accommodation for such persons; to provide places for the reception
of dead bodies, and direct the removal of bodies thereto. The Board is also
charged with the duty of inspecting the district to ascertain what nuisances
call for abatement, additional authority is given to them for this purpose,
and the Secretary of State may be appealed to if the powers given by the
Act are not exercised. Under previous Statutes very great progress has been
made in the sanitary state of St. Giles's, but as each of these new powers
comes to be put in force, further advantages to the condition of the people
and the health of the district will unquestionably arise.
*A reference in this connexion to the tables of mortality in the earlier parts of
this report is full of encouragement and promise. In the last quarter of 1866 the
District had been, through the exertions of the medical visitors as well as of the inspectors,
put into a condition of quite unparalleled cleanliness. In that quarter the
remarkably small number of 364 deaths occurred, tlic mean number for the same
quarter in the five previous years having been 413. To a very slight degree only can
this low mortality be ascribed to the circumstance of cholera having carried off sickly
people in the previous quarter, inasmuch as the victims of cholera were mainly people
in perfect health.