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185
In making systematic inspections, as in much of his other action,
the Medical Officer of Health will usually have required the assistance
of the Inspector of Nuisances; and it will be for the Medical Officer
to include in his report an account of the action which, at his instance,
the Inspector may have taken for the removal of nuisances injurious
to health.
The tabular statements of sickness and mortality in the District
during the year, to be made on the forms supplied for the purpose,
should be the subject of comment in the text of the report, in so
far as deductions from them may assist the Sanitary Authority to an
appreciation of the lines of action needful in the future.
As regards these statements of sickness and mortality, only one
other observation appears to be needful—the District under the
superintendence of a Medical Officer of Health will often contain
several parts evidently differing in their circumstances, or having
very different rates of mortality, either from all causes, or of
mortality from some particular disease or class of diseases. The
observation of these differences can scarcely fail to lead to valuable
information, and it is in view of such differences that the tabular
statements are required in section 15 to be classified according to
localities, and that provision for such a classification is made in the
forms supplied for returns of deaths. In the absence of any ascertained
differences of the above sort, it will still be desirable to classify
the deaths of the district according to the part of the district in
which they occur; and for this purpose any areas of known population
may be taken as representing "localities" for the purposes of
the Order. Classification on this basis will be likely to lead to the
discovery of real differences when the returns for several years can
be compared together. The same considerations apply to the records
of sickness ( Table B.). These records should be tabulated for every
sanitary district; and it will be well, before proceeding to fill the
columns and the blank spaces, to note carefully the headings and
the footnotes.
What has been said above with regard to the information which
an annual report should contain must be understood, not as suggesting
that the report should be limited to these subjects, or that
more detailed or differently arranged tabular statements may not be
added, but as indicating the sort of information required by the
Board's Order. Many Medical Officers of Health will doubtless, with
great advantage to the administration of their districts, furnish much
more detailed information respecting particular questions to which
they have been led by the circumstances of the foregoing years to
devote attention, or in the investigation of which they may have
arrived at valuable conclusions. Any information of this kind will
be appreciated by the Local Government Board.
R. THORNE THORNE,
Local Government Board, Medical Officer.
December, 1896.