London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Battersea 1893

Report upon the public health and sanitary condition of the Parish of St. Mary, Battersea during the year1893

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82
sanitary
operations During the year 1893 the Sanitary Department
has been re-organised and the staff increased. The
staff now consists of one Chief Sanitary Inspector, six District
Sanitary Inspectors, each having charge of one of the six districts
into which the parish has been divided for that purpose.
The work done has increased in proportion as during the
year the total Sanitary operations carried out by the department
will be found by reference to Table XV. to have reached
the large number of 54,577, the total for 1892 having been
38,779, These numbers include letters, telegrams and returns
and notices to Metropolitan Asylums Board, Public Schools and
Libraries and other public bodies.
The number of House Inspections was 25,091, which would
seem to imply that every house in the parish, estimated to be
21,400 in number, had been inspected, but, unfortunately, many
houses were in such an unsanitary state as to require several
visits. Drains were tested by smoke in 1,491 instances and by
water in 491, the total number of drains tested being 1,982, a
much larger number than during any previous year. The
necessity for such testing is evinced by the fact that more than
70 per cent, of the old drains tested by smoke were found defective.
Efforts will be made in future to inspect every house
during each year.
As the result of these inspections it was found necessary to
serve 4,420 notices under Section 3 of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, and subsequently by order of the Sanitary
Committee as the Sanitary Authority, all powers under the
various acts regulating the Sanitation of the Metropolis having
been expressly delegated to them by the Vestry ; 1,211 notices
under Section 4 were served. In addition 2,572 notices were
served under Sections 62 and 65, and 120 under the Metropolis