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chief points of recommendation being that epidemic Diarrhoea
should be made notifiable under Section 55 of the Public
Health (London) Act, during the summer months of July
August and September in each year; that each of the cases
thus notified should be visited and suitable advice given, and
any insanitary or unsuitable conditions noted by the visitor
should be remedied as far as possible; that the Highways
Committee of the Council should be asked to see that the
house refuse in the poorer parts of the Borough was emptied
more frequently—at least twice a week; that the same Committee
should be asked to take the necessary steps to see that
all the road gullies and the London County Council's gullies
connecting the tramways slot rail with the sewer should be
kept properly cleansed, and traps sealed with water;
also the courts and alleys in the poorer districts of the town
should be more frequently cleansed and flushed. I am pleased
to say that these suggestions met with the entire approval of
the Public Health Committee when they were thus brought
before them, and I was directed to bring the matter again
to their notice before the forthcoming summer. This has
recently been done, the matter being under consideration and
a further suggestion being made that a Health Visitor should
be appointed to regularly visit under the Notification of
Births Act, and especially deal with cases of Diarrhoea during
the summer months. Leaflets are also distributed dealing
with the feeding and management of young children, and, as
far as possible, this advice is to be followed up by personal
visitation. Your Medical Officer of Health is also arranging
to visit and speak to the mothers attending the various
mothers' meetings held in connection with the various places
of worship in the poorer districts.
If proof were needed that this disease with its attendant
fatalities were mainly of a preventable character, it would
seem to be readily proved by the following fact:—
The hot weather -per se naturally influenced young children
throughout all parts of the Borough alike, hence if the