Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]
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to the danger of every one living near, and, in certain conditions
of the sewer, of those having occasion to pass by or
over them. There is a generally expressed complaint that
cess-pools have been abolished by the authorities in situations
where there could arise little or no nuisance from
their continuance, and are now placed in another and a
worse form in the public thoroughfares, and in close proximity
to dwellings, where there is no escaping their baneful
influences. There can be no doubt that the efficiency of
the main drainage is greatly marred by this intrinsic
defect. It is earnestly hoped, therefore, that the subject
will meet with the consideration which its great importance
demands.
Referring to other portions of the Table of Sanitary
Operations (No. VI. Appendix,) it is a source of considerable
satisfaction to note the large number of nuisances, of
various kinds, that have been got rid of in the several subdistricts.
The number of houses and premises inspected
has also been large.
Very little short of 1,000 notices appear to have
been served to remove or abate nuisances, as many as
48,790 feet of open ditches, ponds, &c., have been cleansed,
and some 4,000 operations of a sanitary character have
been carried into practical effect during the year. That
magisterial interference has been necessitated in 10 cases
only, is also satisfactory, the more so as, by a comparison
of Table VI. in the Appendix of the present report with
that of the previous year, it is shewn that a less number
of cases by 27 were litigated in 1867 than were so dealt
with in the preceding year.
Sanitary Legislation.—Attention may be advantageously