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33
NUISANCES.
During the last 3 quarters of 1894, 1,213 premises were inspected
for "Nuisances," and sanitary defects were found in 580.
Of this number only 198 inspections were the result of complaints
by householders—and if one substracted from this number those
complaints which were lodged against nuisances alleged to exist on
other people's premises—many of which were not altogether
actuated by pure concern for health—a much smaller number
would remain. It is a pity that so few direct complaints are made.
It is a common experience on visiting a house to be told of defects
which are obviously recognised by the tenants to be injurious or
dangerous to health, and yet such defects are not, when other steps
fail, brought before the notice of the Sanitary Authority. It is not
difficult to ascribe in some cases some motive for this reticence,
but it is a pity that householders do not more generally appreciate
the fact that it is both prudent and economical to place the value
of a healthy home above all other considerations. I may state
that any complaint is always received in the strictest confidence,
and that in no case is the name of the person lodging the
complaint ever divulged.
There are few sources from which foul and dangerous odours
rise more generally than from the large dilapidated dustbins which
are still common in London; the animal and vegetable matter so
frequently mixed with the ashes is kept for dangerously long
periods in these receptacles, which frequently also receive infectious
rubbish. I have no doubt that the general substitution of
salvanized-iron moveable dustbins, made of such dimensions as
will necessitate a weekly clearance, and kept constantly covered,
would have a favourable influence upon the public health of the
Metropolis generally, and more especially upon the health of
children who so generally use the back-yard or gardens as their
play-ground.
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