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27
Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1894.
In the Vestry of St. Margaret, Westminster, the clerk states that the Medical
Officer in calculating the death rate excludes the deaths of non-parishioners dying
within the Parish. Nothing is said about the inclusion of parishioners dying in outlying
institutions.
No answer to your clerk's letter has been received from the Vestries of Lambeth,
Camberwell, Bermondsey, and Woolwich, or from the District Board of Works of
Whitechapel, Greenwich, Wandsworth, Hackney, St. Giles, and Limehouse.
It goes, I thick, without saying that the introduction of a uniform system of
computing the death rates in the various metropolitan areas would constitute a
useful reform.
This could be brought about by the Local Government Board adding the rule to
those duties already defined for the guidance and. observance of the Medical Officers
of Health that all general and zymotic death rates shall, in future, be corrected
according to the method practised by the Registrar-General.
House to House Inspection.
In order to arrive at a proper knowledge of the sanitary wants of the district it is
clear that inspection must be systematic and thorough.
This fact has been recognised in the first section of the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891, which directs that a house to house inspection shall be made by the Local
Authority.
For the first time in the history of this parish a visitation such as that intended
by the framers of the Act has been commenced. This important step has been
rendered possible by last year's increase of the staff of inspectors.
The method which I have adopted is as follows:— Under the direction of
Mr. Edwards, Chief Inspector, each sub-district inspector visits a particular street in
his own ward; he then calls at each house in turn and makes an entry of all its chief
sanitary features in the following form, which is contained in a book supplied for that
purpose.
INSPECTED.
Date 189 .
Premises No.
Basement
Ground Floor
First Floor
Second Floor
Third Floor
Families Adults Children
General Condition
Ventilation
Exterior
W.C.
Water Supply