Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hanover Square, The Vestry of the Parish of Saint George]
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Act, when he did not find such nuisances as I had described.
" Some persons," as he said, " might consider them to be
merely an annoyance or an inconvenience." Now as the
Medical Officers of Health generally proceed under the
Nuisances Removal Act, it should be sufficiently comprehensive
to protect the public health; but in this instance it
was insufficient. And supposing that I had applied to the
Vestry, under the 81st Section of the Metropolis Local
Management Act, that would have compelled the supply
of a water-closet only, leaving some of the other evils unremedied.
And then the condition of the wash-house
would require the Police Act to be put in force to remedy
a dangerous structure.
Nos. 183, 185, 187, 189, 191, and 193, Buckingham
Palace Road.—This was a case of joint drainage, an
obstruction of which caused some of the kitchens to be
flooded with sewage from 6 to 10 inches in depth. The
houses drained into an old brick drain behind; the fall
being the wrong way, which prevented any effectual joint
drainage. A notice was served, and each house drained
separately into the sewer in front.
Smoke Nuisance.
As I have often received complaints of nuisance, injurious
to health, arising from smoke coming from wash-houses,
stables, and other buildings not within the scope of the
Police Act, I have regretted that the local authority has had
no power to prevent it. In such cases persuasion has sometimes
availed to abate the nuisance, but not always. I have
thought it would be very desirable to introduce in any
future Health Bill, requiring amendment, a clause to the
effect that wherever a nuisance arises from the smoke of a
tenement near to any house, that power be given to the local