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The conclusion to be arrived at, from an examination of the above
Table, must be considered most satisfactory, and may be said to form the
most important portion of this Report. It unquestionably shows the
last to have been a more healthy year than any of the previous five
years; and, had the Table been continued, it would have proved still
more favourable to 1857.
Although I am led to hope the adoption of sanitary regulations has
had its attendant good, a more extended period must elapse before any
definite conclusion can be come to, whether this benefit is to be attributed
to what has been already effected, or is dependent upon a generally
healthy state of atmosphere; certainly, as far as a comparative opinion
can be formed, a great improvement has taken place.
In order you may at a glance see what has been accomplished,
I have appended a Table of streets, houses, and requirements that have
been inspected; and, I am happy to add that, in the majority of instances,
the works have been completed in a most satisfactory manner,
and without having recourse to magisterial interference. A reference
to that Table will show the number of houses inspected, and the nuisances
that have been abolished; and, when added to that of the previous year,
will, I trust, satisfy you, every precaution has been taken to secure an
efficient measure of health. During the year, various suggestions have
been made, some of which may, perhaps, be eventually adopted. There
is nothing, however, that calls so loudly for improvement as the proper
ventilation of the sewers, a matter alluded to in my first Annual Report.
In these parishes alone 615 open privies and cesspools have been converted
into water-closets, and the soil is rapidly discharged into the
main sewers; it consequently follows, that where there was previously
a slight, there is now a gigantic evil; and the offence from the private
dwellings having been transmitted to the sewers, is, in consequence of
its escape through the present gullies, disseminated through the different
thoroughfares. I take the liberty of again drawing the attention of the
Board to this matter, in the hope that continued agitation of so important
a subject may eventually compel the proper authorities to adopt
some necessary measures of relief.
I feel the inutility of extending this Report into a consideration of
questions already dilated upon; I have, therefore, refrained from making
in detail observations on the different elements of health; I am content
to put before you what has been accomplished, and the apparent result;
and, I trust, you will consider as much has been effected as could be,
considering the inquisitorial nature of the duties that have devolved
upon,
Gentlemen,
Your faithful Servant,
BARNARD HOLT,
Medical Officer of Health.
5, Parliament Street,
June, 1858.