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board of works for the fulham district.
The reports of the Medical Officer of Health, relating to the steps taken under
the "Order in Council," dated 21st July, 1866, for preventing the spread of
Cholera in this District, having been presented to the Board, and the Clerk,
pursuant to instructions, having submitted a statement of expenses incurred
therein,—it was resolved and ordered, that the reports and statements be printed
and circulated.
W. LOVELY, Clerk,
Broadway House, 28th Nov. 1866.
TO THE SANITARY COMMITTEE, BOARD OF WORKS,
FULHAM DISTRICT.
FULHAM PARISH,
Gentlemen,
It is with considerable satisfaction I present you the remainder of the
accounts, under the head of Cholera Expenses. The total represents, it is true,
a considerable sum, but it also represents an immunity from the more costly
effects of the fatal scourge, which has for several months just past, devastated
many parts of the Metropolitan District.
With a population such as that under your control, with many influences at
work likely to engender, or at any rate to tempt, the extension of an epidemic
malady, with the intermingling of our people with infected districts, and with
atmospheric conditions which would render it well nigh impossible to escape the
general Choleraic influence, it is consolatory to know that Fulham has escaped a dire
mortality,— has passed indeed through a troublous season, not only without excess
of death rate, but actually with diminished consequences of ordinary autumnal sickness.
That this immunity has resulted from the increased watchfulness and activity
of the Sanitary department of the Board of Works, under your authority and
sanction, few I think will doubt. The Medical Staff appointed by your direction,
with the additional Inspectors of Nuisances, all acting under my constant
supervision, have kept anxious watch over the poor localities, and whilst the
former have placed under prompt and careful treatment all cases of premonitory
diarrhoea, the latter have closely followed in their wake, attending to all conditions
detrimental to the public health, and freely distributing disinfectants wherever
necessity or precaution required.
The stall of dispensing Chemists which have been engaged have also done
good service in the cause, so that every possible facility has been offered to the
needy portion of the inhabitants for procuring medical advice and medicines, and
the number of persons who have availed themselves of these opportunities fully
testify to their usefulness and desirability.
The danger of drinking impure water has also met with that consideration at
your hands which it deserved, and, with your sanction, I have ordered StandPosts
to be erected, and kept at daily work for several weeks, in such localities,
as in my judgment, I considered most necessary for the use of the poorer
classes. By this means one considerable source of risk amongst them lius been