Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Camberwell.
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usually at the seaside or in the country, where those attacked
had gone for a change of air.
In all 861 cases of infectious disease were removed to
hospital, including 69 of small pox, 71 of typhoid fever, 357 of
scarlet fever and 364 of diphtheria.
Table XII. shows the work done by your Inspectors, who
now number but 12 owing to the unhappy death of Inspector
Dewey last year. The house-to-house inspections numbered
6,904, against 12,843 in 1894, while the inspections arising from
complaints numbered 2,883, against 1,965 in 1894. There is a
considerable falling off in the figures for 1894 for the house-to
house inspections, but against this we have an increased number
of inspections arising from complaints that have reached us.
Some of these complaints of course are of a very trifling
character and require but little done to remove their cause,
others on the contrary, and these form not the least portion,
lead to a whole block of houses being put into proper order.
All this of course takes up much of your Inspectors' time.
Again, we had 14 Inspectors for the whole of 1894, except in
November and December, when we had 13, a number we
retained until July, 1895, when your staff was reduced to 12.
The frost, too, was a great hindrance to sanitary work, for not
only was it impossible to properly make joints or do any paving
or other work requiring the use of cement, but water was not
available for testing purposes.
Under these circumstances it appears that just as much
work has been done, especially when we look at the total
number of primary inspections, which is almost identical with
that of 1894, when allowance has been made for the lesser
number of Inspectors.
I should particularly point out that a considerable
portion of time was necessarily occupied in dealing with the
question of the absence of water supply, and the furnishing of
evidence for the Local Government Board inquiry, indeed some
of the Inspectors visited as many as 500 houses on this matter.
It appears that there were 50,017 re-inspections of works
in progress, this number including houses in which notifiable
diseases had been or were prevailing; and 965 inspections and
re-inspections of new buildings, a part of our duty which takes