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5
Bronchitis and Pneumonia; and although there is a popular
impression that cold weather is healthy, experience proves that
it is only persons in the enjoyment of rude health who can with
impunity disregard such variations: the old and very voting
more especially, when the subjects of disease, being materially
influenced by temperature.
For the purpose of ascertaining whether any existing cause
capable of removal was exercising an undue influence in those
localities where Scarlet Fever had been most rife, I visited the
majority of the houses in which deaths had occurred, but I was
unable to detect anything beyond that which was attributable
to the habits of the occupants. In some, the covers from the
traps were removed, thus facilitating the escape of noxious
gases (arising both from their own and that of the main sewer)
into the house, while in others the inhabitants were generally
dirty, and the premises in a filthy state; and in one instance,
in Allington Street, death appears to have been accelerated by
the want of proper necessaries—the parties having refused to
enter the Workhouse.
In compliance with the section of the Act of Parliament
respecting Underground Dwellings, a general survey has been
undertaken, and 11 houses have been detected where the
requirements of the Act are not complied with: in all, the
tenants have been removed, and the parties cautioned not to
allow the premises to be so occupied in future.
Among the various matters that engage the attention of
Officers of Health is that of pig-keeping; and it therefore
becomes necessary to consider how far this, as an element of
disease, may have an injurious tendency. There can be but
one opinion respecting the necessity of preventing the indiscriminate
keeping of pigs, and as the Act of Parliament is
sufficiently stringent upon the point, it becomes the duty of the
Local Authorities to enforce it wherever they may think
necessary. In doing this, however, it may be advisable to