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THE ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
For the Year 1898.
To the Vestry of the Hamlet of Mile End Old Town.
Gentlemen,
It is now my duty to report to you on the Health and
Sanitary condition of the Hamlet during the year 1898.
Although much useful work has been accomplished in the past
year, there is still a great deal to be done before Mile End is
a Health Resort.
The most casual observer cannot but be struck with the
condition of the district as it is to-day compared with what it
was—say, 12 years ago. At that time the Public Health Act
was not in existence and the provisions of the Nuisance Removal
Act and other statutes were not of such a drastic character as
the present Act
There were then, I should say, thousands of houses without
proper water supply to their closets, and hundreds of houses with
their domestic supply of water from the same tank that supplied
the W.C. The drainage of the houses was very imperfect, and
consequently Sewer gas was constantly being emitted into living
rooms. This state of affairs is being gradually altered; proper
and separate water supplies for domestic purposes as well as for
W.C.'s and a more perfect system of drainage cannot fail to have
the effect of raising the health standard of the people, especially
that of the rising generation.