London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Battersea 1910
Report on the health of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea for the year 1910
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51
Sanitation of House Property.
The systematic inspection of house property is carried out by
eight district inspectors, the Borough being for this purpose divided
into eight sanitary districts.
During 1910 the total number of houses inspected in house-tohouse
inspection was 3,441, as compared with 3,218 in 1909.
The following is a summary of the number of houses inspected in each year since 1900:—
| 1900 | 3,009 |
| 1901 | 3,116 |
| 1902 | 1,740 |
| 1903 | 2,670 |
| 1904 | 3,020 |
| 1905 | 4,503 |
| 1906 | 3,609 |
| 1907 | 4,101 |
| 1908 | 3,609 |
| 1909 | 3,218 |
| Average for the ten years 1900-1909 | =3,259 |
| 1910 | 3,441 |
The number of houses inspected, it will be seen, has varied
considerably in each year. This is accounted for by the increased
prevalence of epidemic infectious disease in certain years. Thus
the relatively small numbers of houses inspected in 1902 was due to
the small-pox outbreak in that year, the time of the Inspectors being
largely taken up with measures to prevent the spread of infection,
e.g., isolation, removal to hospital, tracing contacts, &c.
The work done in this direction during 1910 has been on the whole
satisfactory and compares favourably with past years, being slightly
higher than the average for the preceding decennium.
The following summary shows the number of houses inspected
and the number of defects found in each of the sanitary districts
during 1910.