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65
[1933
SCHOOLS.
The medical inspection of school children in this, as a Metropolitan Borough,
comes under the administration of the London County Council. School premises,
however, come under the general sanitary inspection of the department. A school
is defined in the interpretation section (141) of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891, thus:—The expression "house" includes schools, also factories and other
buildings in which persons are employed.
The main cause for visitation to schools by the District Sanitary Inspector, or
other investigation by the Public Health Department, is of course enquiries connected
with occurrences of infectious diseases and co-operation with the school
authority in reference to the control of measles, chicken-pox and small-pox.
Occasionally upon an outbreak of modified small-pox it is found convenient to
have the vaccinations done at a school, as through the assistance of the school
authority the children concerned and the immediate contacts are more readily got
together. In addition to the public elementary schools and higher grade schools,
there are known to us in the Borough of Islington 15 private schools.
RATS AND MICE (DESTRUCTION) ACT, 1919.
(9 and 10 Geo. 5, Ch. 72.)
As in the previous year, the intimation of Rat Week to the public was made by
means of handbills. These were distributed from the various rooms in the Public
Health Department to which the public have daily access, and by the District
Sanitary Inspectors during the course of their daily visits.
The week had just commenced when the problem of a suitable distribution of
rat poison in the manner described in last year's report was solved. It had been
found that if the cost of a rat poison is 9d. or 1/-, the general public are not so
ready to try it, whereas if a collapsible tube to sell at 6d. is available, a much
larger number will experiment. We had previously tried such a poison, but the
brand was found not to have good keeping qualities. On the opening of Rat
Week, the proprietor of one of the poisons approved by the Ministry of Agriculture
called upon us with his article made up in collapsible tubes. A supply was
immediately obtained, exhibited in the enquiry office and in the waiting-room of
the Public Health Department. The demand for these "baits" has steadily
increased, and as indicated in last year's report, a suitable make having been
obtained, it is likely to be much more saleable than the dearer "baits," at any rate
to the small householder.
Dealing with some aspects of the District Sanitary Inspectors' work in the
course of their duties as Rat Officers, during Rat Week 14 complaints were
received in one Inspector's district, which necessitated the inspection of 30 houses
and the service of 9 notices. In six cases the whole or part of the drainage system
of the respective houses was reconstructed. In some instances where the complaints
were justified the rats were found to be strays. In three cases the presence
of rats was observed by the sinking of the street pavement, and holes in the drain
frontages were found at depths of 3 feet to 5 feet. It is odd that rats instinctively
dig upwards to the surface when they escape from a drain, and never downwards.
In one instance rats appeared to escape from the drainage system through the top
end of a vent pipe which lay on the slope of a roof. From here they were able to
get down to the yards via the rainwater pipes and gutters; the drain, of course,
was not intercepted,