View report page

THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER, OF HEALTH.
To the Board of Works, Fulham District.
Gentlemen,
The Annual Reports, which now for thirteen years you have presented
to your constituents together with my own, have contained a yearly epitome
of the conjoint labours of the several departments under your control. It
would indeed he an unsatisfactory circumstance could your efforts be reviewed
at this period without the manifest accomplishment of many of the grand
results which the legislature and the country expected you to achieve.
Probably no district within the Metropolitan area required more activity in
the executive than that of Fulham and Hammersmith. Though blessed
with a wonderful subsoil of gravel, the natural level of the Fulham District,
many parts of which are below high-water mark, had hitherto precluded it
from efficient drainage—indeed it might be said had actually kept it undrained.
As healthfulness is money, and more than money to an individual, so must its
full benefits be more than prized where realized by large communities. It
was not many years ago when Hammersmith and Fulham were ranked
amongst the unhealthy London Districts. This ban has been removed, the
general Metropolitan scheme of drainage has given an outlet to our previously
waterlogged condition, and by the persistent energy of your Board, good use
has been made of it
The schedule which I presented to you with my first general report
shewed the absolutely forlorn condition of nearly all the cottage property in
the district as regards both drainage and water supply. A reference to that
document would prove how much we then depended on the cesspool system,
and how greatly the drinking water for the poor prevailed from surface wells
and even ditches. The Act which ushered your Board into existence was designed
to overcome these evils, and how far your Board and its officers have
realized in a sanitary point of view the expectations of the public, will probably
become apparent by a recapitulation of the works carried out under your orders,
as they are gleaned from this and the twelve annual reports of your Board preceeding
it. In these it will be found that the gross number of nuisances of
various kinds which have come under the notice of the sanitary committees
up to March 25th, 18G8, have been 13,514, that the general character of these
has comprised defective privy accommodation and drainage, uncleanly and
unwholesome dwellings, defective water supply, swine kept in a state of
nuisance and injury to health, with an unsanitary condition of roads and open
spaces.
It will be seen that of defective privy accommodation 4214 cases have
been reported and dealt with, that 4257 drains and gullies have been cleansed,
that 2544 unwholesome houses have been cleansed or repaired, that 1021 swine
nuisances have been removed, that 1478 nuisances of a miscellaneous character