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7
During the prevalence of the disease, disinfectants were
liberally supplied, arrangements made for the destruction
of infected clothing, bedding, &c., and every care taken to
secure to the sick all requisite attendance, nursing, and
medical comforts.
The district authorities, and through them Her Majesty's
Privy Council, were kept constantly informed by the
Medical Officers of Health of the progress of the disease
and of its fatality; placards, handbills, and admonitory
notices, were freely distributed; the public were made duly
acquainted with all special arrangements and regulations
for the treatment of the sick, and the disposal of the dead;
and, in short, without creating any undue alarm, every
possible precaution was taken to prevent the spread of the
infection.
That these measures were productive of great good,
there is no reason whatever to doubt, and looking at the
small resulting fatality, compared with what it had been
in some former years of Cholera, it is believed no better
regulations than those here detailed, to avert the consequences
of so great a calamity, could have been adopted, or
carried out by the Committees and their executive officers
with greater effect.
The Medical Officers of Health have, however, still to
deplore the defective arrangements for the due supply of
water for domestic and other purposes. In the treatment
of the late epidemic, it became manifest to every one concerned,
that no measure of improvement was more needed
than the supply of this necessary of life, upon what is called
the constant service principle; and it is still believed
that no other system of supply is calculated in so great a