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92
1899]
When attacked. To
1. Seek immediate medical advice, for the disease is a dangerous
one.
As for Sanitary Authorities they can—
1. Keep the streets thoroughly well paved, channelled, and
cleansed, and the poorer and more densely populated
the locality the more stringently to adopt these
precautions.
2. Thoroughly flush every sewer so that no deposits can
remain in them to give off foul air during their
decomposition.
3. Insist that all the yards (so-called gardens) in tenement
houses shall be paved with an impervious material, so
that no dirt and dust can find their way into the
premises to contaminate the food of the infants, or to
pollute the air of the house.
4. Insist that the sites of all houses shall be concreted to
prevent the entrance of ground air into them.
5. Insist that the sanitary arrangements of houses are kept in
good order by the owners.
6. Insist that the occupiers shall perform the duty that devolves
on them to keep their sanitary conveniences in a cleanly
state, and the water cisterns free from pollution.
These diarrhœal diseases can never, I suppose, be absolutely
prevented, for they are caused by micro organisms, which find their
most potent breeding places in insanitary surroundings.
I have in my report for the third quarter of 1898 already dwelt
very fully on this subject, and I will not now repeat what I have
there written.