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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1859. 19
of coffins, many of which were crushed and rent asunder, giving off foul and deadly emanations
to the harm of the neighbourhood, and more especially to those who assembled above
for worship; they have all been carefully levelled, the interstices filled up with brick rubbish,
then a layer of dry lime, followed by one of peat charcoal, and over all a considerable thickness
of screened gravel, that now there only remains the appearance of a broad gravel walk.
For the work which has been done during the year, and which is now in progress,
I refer you to Table No. 7; and it must be borne in mind that the average visits paid to
each place must be at least six. There is a considerable amount of labour done in this
department, for which there is no evidence.
TABLE No. 7.
Sanitary Inspections from March 26th, 1859, to March 25th, 1860.
Work
completed
Not begun
or left
unfinished
177
158
19
Number of Houses or Places visited
347
295
52
Number of Visits of Medical Officer and Inspector.—(On an average,}
—
—
—
(5 Visits to each case)
Premises unclean, or dilapidated within
19
13
6
1
1
...
Unfit for human habitation
14
8
6
Insufficient Ventilation
2
2
...
Water receptacles, none, bad, or without cover
21
21
...
168
149
19
Foul cesspools
118
103
15
Water Closets, defective or without water
40
30
10
Yards badly paved and not paved
58
48
10
Dust-bins, none or imperfect
89
81
8
Nuisances from animals badly kept
5
5
...
Slaughter-houses or Manufactories in an unwholsome state
8
8
...
Foul and offensive yards
24
22
2
Offensive urinals
2
2
...
In concluding my remarks, I will, at the risk of repetition, remind you how much
there still remains to be done in the way of sanitary improvement before we reach the, as yet,
far distant goal. The happiness, peace, and contentment of thousands of our hard-handed
and hard-worked population, depend upon these improvements being wisely and thoroughly
carried out. Society is one body, and no portion of that body can exist in an unnatural state
without the whole suffering more or less. No law of nature can be broken with impunity,
punishment for the infraction follows as surely as day succeeds day, and no special interposition
will ever be made to hinder us from receiving the reward for our misdeeds, be they done
from ignorance, error, or other cause. How much then it behoves us to understand and
keep " those laws which God has assigned to the relations of our bodies with the world in
which He has put them."
HENRY BATESON.
Mat 21st, 1860.