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9
SANITARY WORKS OF THE YEAR.
During the greater part of the period extending between Lady-day, 1867, and
the same day this year, I have had the advantage of the alteration made in the
Sanitary staff by the appointment of a Superintendent Inspector by the Vestry in
April, 1867, in the place of one of the Inspectors who had resigned. Of the four
Inspectors, three have since been daily engaged in out-of-door work, the Parish
being divided as fairly as possible between them for this purpose. The fourth,
Mr. Collingwood, the Superintendent, has been occupied in the office, and with his
aid a system has been introduced which while regulating, recording, and checking
effectually the work of the other three, has resulted in the accomplishment of an
amount of work out of all proportion to the increase which was made in the staff in
May, 1866. The records now kept have enabled me to present this year to the
Vestry a table of Sanitary work more full of details than in former years. I think
this table will be regarded with satisfaction, not only on this account, but because it
exhibits results which confirm the wisdom of the alterations made. In addition to
the Dwelling-house inspections, the Cow-sheds, Slaughter-houses, and Bakehouses
are inspected at an appointed time every three or four months. The regulations
adopted for the direction of the Inspectors, and the Superintendent's duties are in
print, so that there is no necessity for my reproducing them here. One other
point, however, I must mention, namely, that ever since the passing of the Sanitary
Act and our outbreak of cholera, I have continued to carry out where necessary, and
where I felt certain that the matter could not be safely left in the hands of
the occupiers of poor tenements, the disinfections which the act alluded to directs to
be done. The cost of this only amounts to a few shillings in the month and I am
satisfied that it has resulted in a great deal of good. The only cases thus interfered
with are those in which small-pox, scarlet fever, continued fever, or choleraic
diarrhoea have occurred. The agents I have employed have been the carbolic acid
and McDougal's powder, in which I believe every confidence is to be placed and
which are more convenient for application than any others which have been proposed.
My chief difficulty has been in dealing with articles of clothing, &c., which could not
be washed. I have now, however, obtained one of Blake's Evaporisers, which will
enable me to expose them for any length of time that may be desirable to the fumes
of carbolic acid. Whether this will be effectual experience alone will demonstrate.
At the annual licensing of Slaughter-houses and Cow-sheds, licences were
refused on the opposition of the Vestry to four of the former and one of the latter.
The number of Cows kept in the Parish was found to be 485, the number of licensed
establishments being 63. No remarkable increase of Cow-keeping then has taken
place since the discouragement arising from the cattle plague outbreak. New
arrangements for the public supply of milk, made at that time, appear thus to have
become permanent institutions.