London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Wandsworth 1877

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]

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14
would rapidly diminish, and many lives be saved. Of the
above cases, 39 occurred in Battersea, 5 in Wandsworth,
and one in each of the other Sub-districts.
Sanitation.— An epitome of the sanitary labours of
the year will be found in the sixth Table of the Appendix.
An increase in the house visitations is to be noted; more
piggeries got rid of, chiefly in Streatham, and more houses
received cleansing or repair, principally in Battersea. In
the Combined Summary for Battersea (pages 21 to 23),
will be found the result of two important cases of nuisance
arising from public manufactories. The decisions obtained
in these cases from the Courts were such as to encourage
the efforts of sanitary authorities. To the Combined
Summary for the Battersea Parish we refer the reader for
the particulars, which it would be difficult to condense
further, or more lucidly express.
Cow and Slaughter-Houses.— In the various local
summaries an almost entire unanimity of opinion will be
found, that the regulations in force regarding the slaughter
houses are found satisfactory in actual operation. There
is an equal agreement of opinion as to the necessity for
similar regulations for the management of cow-houses. At
present our powers end with the somewhat vague requirements
of the Sanitary Acts, and we find ourselves totally
unable to deal efficiently with the numerous cases of
defective hygeine, which we find exemplified in the ordinary
type of cow-house. There is no business the conduct of
which concerns the health and interests of the community
so intimately as the milk traffic, from the well known capability
of that fluid of conveying infection. Not only does
milk indisputably convey definite germs of disease, but we
believe it may readily be contaminated with morbific
germs, which do not produce definite diseases, but give
rise to that irritation of the alimentary tract, which is
shown by the indigestion, sickness, diarrhœa, &c., from
which children are constantly suffering, and frequently die.
In the local summary for Putney, some precise suggestions