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76
Sanitary
Proceedings.
A long and apparently crowded table will
be found in the Appendix (page 117) of the
Sanitary operations carried out under the Surveyor and
Inspector of Nuisances during the year. In many
instances the Medical Officer of Health is called upon
to assist these officers in their labours and takes a
continued and lively interest in their duties. The
change of system recently inaugurated of having a
personal inspection of the drains of all houses, especially
the smaller and more quickly and frequently dilapidated
property, has done much good and will do more.
Four thousand houses have been inspected during the
year,—a number in excess of our total of inhabited
houses because several of them have been repeatedly
examined—and a variety of defects more or less
important revealed. As the wise saying "Take care
of the pence and the pounds will take care of
themselves" applies to money-getting and keeping;
so "Take care of the small defects and the greater
ones will find their own remedy" applies to Sanitary
work. It is not pretended that this Sanitary inspection
is thorough, and it is well the public should be guarded
against supposing that any house is perfectly safe
because no fault has been discovered. Neither the
public purse nor the pockets of the residents are equal
to a thorough testing examination (as it means taking
up drains, flooring, &c.) but as far as they can be seen
and examined without such expense, the sanitary
arrangements of the house are examined and the owner
or occupier advised upon them. This meets the case
in the vast majority of instances, but on (he occurrence of
infectious disease a closer inspection is recommended.
It is a matter of satisfaction to find that on the whole
the inspection is not met in a hostile spirit as an
infringement of private rights but is generally and