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8
No doubt we owe our immunity in a great measure to the zeal
and vigilance displayed by the Port Sanitary Authorities in the
inspection of passengers and crews of all vessels coming from
cholera-infected countries.
However, the disease showed itself at Grimsby, where several
cases occurred, and spread to other localities, where a direct
connection with Grimsby could foe traced.
The precautions adopted in St. Martin's the previous year stil
held good, and by your directions I selected three resident medical
gentlemen for the purpose of giving advice and medicine to the
poorer class of parishioners should the disease invade us.
With our improved sanitation, and the precautions exercised
at our several ports when cholera is threatening us, it is my
opinion that this disease will never again obtain any appreciable
foothold in this country.
The House to House Inspection.
This is the only parish in London, so far as I can ascertain,
which has adopted this sanitary measure.
Three temporary qualified Inspectors were selected for the
work, the number shortly afterwards being reduced to two, owing
to one of them resigning for the purpose of taking a permanent
appointment of a similar nature elsewhere. They commenced their
duties on the 2nd of January, 1893, at three different points of the
Parish. Before beginning their task, I instructed them not to put
the Parishioners to unnecessary expense; but, at the same time, any
grave sanitary defects must be dealt with, drains in particular. We
made large use of Kemp's drain tester for ascertaining the soundness
of the drains. In a great many cases old, worn out, brick drains
were discovered; and, in the case of pipe drains, the joints were
frequently very defective, being destitute of cement or stopping
of any kind.
In houses of comparatively recent construction, and of a good
class, drainage defects were found; strange to say, the Inspectors