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86
THE YEAR'S WORK OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH
DEPARTMENT.
Yerbury Road Board Schools.
At the commencement of the year the action against the School
Board for London re, the insanitary condition of the Yerbury Road
Schools had not been concluded, inasmuch as the decision of the magistrate
had not been given. However, on January 7th, he (Horace
Smith, Esq.) delivered his judgment.
This decision was reported to the Public Health Committee, who
decided that a report should be presented to the Vestry as to the steps
taken by them respecting these schools. Accordingly the Committee
presented the following report:—
January 9th, 1893.
To the Vestry of St. Mary, Islington.
Yerbury Road Board School—Proceedings against School Board
for London.
Your Public Health Committee begs to report the steps that hare been taken in
the recent proceedings by the Vestry against the School Board for London, in
respect to the insanitary condition of the Yerbury Road Hoard School.
Your Committee, as the Vestry is quite aware, has had under its consideration
for a very long while the cause of the large number of cases of Diphtheria occurring
amongst the scholars attending the Yerbury Road Board School.
During the year 1891 your Committee became seriously anxious, and directed
the late Medical Officer of Health to make such enquiries as he deemed proper.
These enquiries were duly made by him, and as the result, he presented a report to
your Committee on the 18th of January, 1892, in which he said "I do not consider,
beyond the School being a large meeting house for children, that it can be accused of
having caused the outbreak." From this report it does not appear that the School
was inspected by the late Medical Officer of Health, or by any Official of the Vestry
by his direction. He had, however, been in correspondence with the Medical Officer
of the School Board to whom he wrote on or about the 15th December, 1891, in reply
to a communication, that he thought the condition of the School ought to be looked
into by that Officer. An interview also took place between both Officers, and the
result was that it was distinctly understood in the Public Health Department that
there were no sanitary defects existing in the School.