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7
Other houses reported by the Medical Officers of
Health, after inspection, as requiring repair,
or drainage, or cleansing, &c 25
Houses reported by the Inspector for various
nuisances33
Houses inspected in consequence of complaints
from the inhabitants 52
Kitchen and other apartments shut up 2
Miscellaneous cases chiefly of out-door nuisances,
such as gullies, dung heaps, offensive trades,
&c. &c., complained of by the Medical Officers,
the Inspectors, or the inhabitants 57
It will be expedient to give the details of a few of
the more important cases, in which legal proceedings were
taken, or were likely to be taken; or in which some other
points of interest were involved, which deserve to be put
on record.
Complaint of unwholesome effluvia from the preparation
of vulcanite. The occupiers of No. 50, Maddox-street,
complained of a nuisance caused by a dentist living at
the next house, No. 52, in the preparation of vulcanite—
a material of which artificial gums and palates are made.
On inspecting the process of manufacture, and from inquiry
made of other dentists, it soon became evident that
the complaint was well founded. The material employed
(probably sulphur and some preparation of india rubber)
is put in a soft state into a plaster mould, which is screwed
safely into an iron box, and then baked in an iron vessel
by means of steam at a high pressure. The iron vessel
enclosed in a jacket is heated by a gas lamp till it
attains the heat of 300° or 350°. There is a safety valve
to prevent explosion which was said never to be lifted by