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So that from such Register I may be enabled from time to time,
or when required by the Board, to furnish correct information in
reply to enquiries that may be made respecting any part of the
District.
Without this information, I fear you will have but little
chance of success in your endeavours towards the public good. In
order, therefore, that I may obtain such information, I am desirous
that the Inspectors shall, in respect to all sanatory measures, be
placed entirely under my direction and supervision; and that they
shall be instructed by your Board to follow any directions,
systematic arrangements, and other measures that I shall from time
to time think necessary to adopt (such as house to house visitation,
and inspection in every street), and according to the routine I shall
lay down for their guidance; and to report to me, upon such
inspections, as to drainage, water-closets, cesspools, water-supply,
and every other information I may require for your deliberation.
It is now, therefore, under a sense of the deepest responsibility,
that I shall proceed to lay before you what appear to me to be the
principal causes existing to account for the past amount of disease;
and at the same time to recommend to you the most appropriate
means for its mitigation and remedy, and which I shall bring before
your notice under the following heads, viz.:—
First.—The condition of the streets and general surface of the
District.
Secondly.—The want of sewerage, drainage, and a sufficient
water supply; and
Thirdly.—The ill-ventilated and filthy state of the houses
and personal habits of the poorer classes.
On each of these subjects I shall offer such details and such
general observations as appear to me to be necessary for the
complete removal of such causes of disease; and shall commence
with the subject of "surface cleansings;" which, in the absence of
general sewerage, I consider ought first to deserve your attention,
inasmuch as it is the only measure that can at present be regularly
carried out through every part of your District.