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138
Sanitary Legislation.
Public Health (London) Act consolidates
all the acts bearing on the subject. A large
amount of time has been devoted to the consideration of
its provisions, and frequent attendance on the meetings
of the Sub-Committees of the Sanitary Committee, to
whom was referred for consideration, the Public Health
(London Act,) 1891, and to report thereon.
The report is given in extenso in the combined
report.
Particulars of the principal sanitary works of the year
are given in Table XIII. The figures in this table show
an increase under most of the headings. The number
of house to house inspections was 4,728, about the same
as last year, and represents a very large amount of work.
Probably some of these separate inspections called for
repeated visits afterwards to see if the necessary works
had been carried out, so that the figures only partially
represent the actual work of the Inspectors, 639 first
notices were served to remedy defects and abate
nuisances; only 18 second notices were required. Much
work also was done on requisition, and does not appear
in the Table. 166 rooms in 119 houses were disinfected
after infectious diseases. In all instances, fumigation
with sulphur was practised, the bedding and clothing
was subjected to super-heated steam in 45 cases. This
was generally carried out when the patients were treated
at home. The bedding was burnt in eleven instances;
in no case was there a recurrence of the disease after
disinfection.
The figures in respect of new sewers, of new drains,
and of drains relaid are given in the table.
There were 314 syphon traps fixed to drains as compared
with 87 in the previous year. Over 300 waterclosets
were cleansed, repaired, or had water supply laid
on as compared with 159 last year.