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and soil, especially the latter, were present as shewn by the accompanying
chart.
The true cause of Diarrhoea is a microbial organism, the germ
growing under the action of heat in the subsoil and gaining access to
the alimentary system mostly through the medium of food, liquid and
solid, and here is seen the great risk in communicating such affection
through the food of infants other than breast fed, in such ways as
the sucking of dummy comforters, dirty fingers and a variety ot
other ways.
The evil effects of a high earth temperature on a damp and
polluted soil is minimised to a very great extent when the area upon
which the house stands is sealed against the access of contamination
from the soil below by a bed of concrete, as shewn by the fact that in
28 per cent. of the houses in which cases occurred the sites were concreted,
and in 72 per cent. they were not. The latter figure may be
really higher because those houses where any doubt existed have been
classed as concreted.
REMEDIAL MEASURES.
A systematic house-to-house inspection of all the houses in the
roads of the part of the Town tinted blue on map was completed
early in the year, and all matters that could be dealt with under the
Nuisances Clauses of the Public Health Act were remedied, sixty
houses also being placed on the Register of Houses Let in Lodgings.
The Town Council are making new Bye-Laws dealing with
various matters, and in this connection further powers will be sought
to deal with the paving of forecourts and spaces adjoining houses
before they become a nuisance.
The Borough Engineer and Surveyor submitted a scheme three
or four years ago dealing with the excessive flooding which took place
then, and made certain recommendations, inter alia, the construction
of additional surface water sewers and new outfall, which would
relieve the low level sewer.
Up to the present time, owing to difficulty with the owners of
the land as to easements, this has not been accomplished, but I have
great hopes that when this is done, it may cause the lowering of the
subsoil water in the area under review.