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22
Water
Section 95, Public Health (London) Act, 1936
The number of new dwellings for which applications were received
for certificates that a proper and sufficient supply of water had been
installed was 686.
The water supply for the area is provided almost entirely by the
Metropolitan Water Board, but there are a few deep wells of which
Some supply water for purposes other than human consumption,
while in a tew cases the supply is used for potable purposes both for
drinking on the premises as well as for the manufacture of beverages
and for similar trade purposes. In these latter cases a comprehensive
examination of the supply both bacteriological as well as
chemical is made every three months at least, which is deemed
sufficient tor ample warning of any serious changes to be observed
before there is danger to health.
Prevalence and Control Over Infectious and
Other Diseases
The mortality from infectious disease was again almost negligible,
scarlet fever 0, diphtheria 0, measels 0, and whooping cough 2.
There is little to be said about infectious diseases beyond an
expression of thankfulness that they have played such an insignificant
part in the health of the population. The following
quotation is taken from the Annual Report of my predecessor for
1862, only eighty-seven years ago :—
"Epidemic diseases caused 939 deaths, being 25 per cent. of
the entire mortality. Scarlatina contributed as usual the greatest
number, 368 deaths. Typhus caused 154 deaths. ... This disease
which is so closely connected with overcrowding was, as might be
expected, most fatal in the Lambeth Church and Waterloo Road
Districts, where in consequence of the removal of so many houses
for the construction of railways, the poorer classes are crowded
together in an unprecedented manner."
During that year there were 116 deaths from measles, the same
number from diarrhoea mainly in infants; diphtheria caused 28
deaths, smallpox 6.
At that time there was a constant piped supply of water to a
small fraction only of the area, while the water being drawn from
the Thames and poorly filtered was cloudy and had a decided