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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ances and other matters conjointly, that this resume has
been made to comprehend the operations of both Subdistricts.
The number of houses in Table VI. recorded to have
been inspected during the year was 3357. In many of
these houses infectious disease had been present, and disinfection
by means of fumigation, and antiseptic chemical
agents, was effectively applied, and the recurrence of similar
disease has not, as far as we have been informed, taken
place in any instance.
By these inspections many nuisances have been discovered,
most of them having direct relation to defective
drainage within the walls of dwellings. 359 1st notices
were served and the majority attended to by the owners
or occupiers of the premises. In 18 instances 2nd notices
had to be served before the necessary repairs or alterations
were executed. In reference to this subject numerous
investigations have convincingly demonstrated the great
necessity that exists for the extension of the control of the
Board and its officers over the laying and construction of
the drainage of houses within the walls as well as without.
In nearly every complaint of nuisance the house drains
have been the channel by which the offensive matter
complained of gained admission; and the record of any
great outbreak of Zymotic disease suggests that the
disease has been frequently conveyed from house to
house by the same means. It is imperatively necessary
for the Public safety that all house drains should be well
and efficiently trapped, that the joints should be effectively
made with proper material, that a concrete foundation
for the drains should be made through the basement, to
prevent sinking and consequent leakage—which has many
times in this parish been the cause of an immensity of
illness a,nd many deaths—and last, but certainly not least
in importance; the drain pipes should in all cases be
continued, of the same calibre, to the roof of the house,
or, still better, some two feet above it. These precautions,