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APPENDIX B.
ANNUAL REPORT OF MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.
To the Chairman of the Board of Works.
5, Parliament Street,
January 12, 1857.
Sir:
Twelve months having elapsed since you did me the honour
to elect me your Medical Officer of Health, it is incumbent upon me to
furnish you with this my first Annual Report; and I trust its perusal
will satisfy you no exertions have been spared on my part in endeavouring
to effect a considerable improvement in the sanitary condition
of the Parishes.
In an appointment entailing so much in reference to the health of the
inhabitants, the procedure must be necessarily varied in accordance with
the pressing necessities; and although there are yet numerous important
objects to effect, which will necessitate a much more extended field of
operations, yet pure air, pure water, wholesome food, cleanliness, and
freedom from damp and noxious emanations, must be classed amongst
the most pressing requirements; and it will be seen, that up to the present
period my whole time has been occupied in endeavouring to remedy
the existing defects.
Upon my first initiation into sanitary improvements, I was somewhat
appalled at the generally inefficient state of the drainage; and speedily
became aware, that to secure that measure of health the localities were
capable of affording, a house-to-house visitation would be necessary—
first inspecting those situations where cholera, fever, or epidemics, had
been most prevalent: and when I inform you that 164 streets and
1,165 houses have been inspected, that 410 cesspools have been emptied,
456 waterclosets constructed, 361 dustbins erected, and in 357 instances
the pavements have been repaired, you will see what has been already
accomplished, and have some faint idea of the influence such accumulations
of soil and its emanations were likely to have on the public health.
In houses surrounded by an atmosphere of deadly gases, imperfectly ventilated,
badly supplied with water, damp, and dirty, it was not a matter
of surprise death should have made such ravages; and although the
human organism is capable of existing under the most trying circumstances,
yet the influence of these poisonous exhalations has yet to be
appreciated in the determination of how far they may originate the
development of consumption, scrofula, cancer, and other diseases, from
which a large number of our fellow parishioners annually die.
To remedy this evil as much as possible, great efforts have been
made to convert all open privies into waterclosets; to have all cesspools
emptied and filled in; and to construct impermeable drainage, so that
the exhalation from the main sewers should be as limited as possible:
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