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80 Medical Officers of Health Annual Report.
Natural Causes 10
Violence:—
Accidental On Railway 1
Poisoning 1
Suffocation 3
Injuries 5—10
Suicide Hanging 1
Cut Throat 2
Gun-shot 1— 4
Open Verdicts Poisoning 1
Injuries 2
Alcoholism 1— 4
Total 28
Sanitary
Operations.
A tabulated statement of the Sanitary operations
which will repay perusal will be set
out in table No. XIII. of the combined Report.
During the year, 1,238 inspections of premises were
made by the staff of my department. These inspections
were principally necessitated by complaints and cases
of infectious disease, house-to-house inspection being
practically extinct. I again take the opportunity of
urging the necessity of an addition to the present
inadequate staff of Sanitary inspectors, in order that
this very important section of Public Health work may
be operated, with a view to the discovery of sanitary
defects, which at present are only brought to notice after
an outbreak of infectious disease, or upon the nuisance
becoming so serious as to render it absolutely necessary
on the part of the occupier to make complaint at the
office. Public Health duties are obviously intended to
be of a preventive character, and I am strongly of
opinion that at least that class of property coming
within the definition of the bye-laws relative to houses
let in lodgings should be subject to annual inspection.
As a result of the inspections carried out by the