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9
Vaccination can be most efficiently performed by those who have on every
occasion on which they propose to vaccinate, a large number of cases from which
to choose their lymph, and who have also large experience in the performance of
the operation. The multiplication of vaccinators is, therefore, undesirable. I
believe that vaccination would be more efficiently performed if it were assigned
to special officers,—a great part of whose time should be thus employed.
A Bill now before the House of Commons, to Amend the Law relating to the
Public Health, contains a number of provisions which would be found very
useful in the parish, for the abatement of nuisances, and removal of sources of
disease.
The definition attached to the word nuisances is extended, so as to include
any house, or part of a house, so overcrowded as to be dangerous or prejudicial
to the health of the inmates, any workshop not kept in a cleanly state
or not well ventilated, and any fire-place or furnace which does not consume its
own smoke, and is used for working engines by steam, or in any manufactory.
It gives power to enforce the cleansing, limewhiting, or otherwise disinfecting
any house or part thereof, upon the certificate of any legally qualified medical
practitioner, that such cleansing would tend to check the spread of infectious
disease.
It gives power to the local authority to provide proper places for the
reception of dead bodies; and when such places are provided, that if any dead body
of one who has died of any infectious disease is retained in a room in which
persons live or sleep, or is in such a state as to endanger the health of the
inmates of the house, any Justice may, on the certificate of a medical man,
order the body to be removed to such place of reception.
On application to one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, the
Secretary of State may empower the local authority to make regulations for the
following matters; that is to say,—
1. For fixing the number of lodgings which may be separately let in any
house, and for fixing the number of persons who may occupy any
such lodging.
2. For the registration of houses thus let in lodgings.
3. For the inspection of such houses, and the keeping the same in a cleanly
and wholesome state.
4. For enforcing therein the provisions of privy accommodation and other
appliances and means of cleanliness, in proportion to the number
of lodgings and occupiers, and the cleansing and ventilation of the
common passages and staircases.
5. For the cleansing and limewhiting, at stated times, of such premises.
A penalty, not exceeding £5, is imposed for exposure in any public place,
or public conveyance, of any person suffering from a dangerous infectious disorder,
without proper precaution against spreading it; and there is a like penalty on
the owner or driver of a public conveyance, who does not, immediately provide
for its disinfection, after it has, with his knowledge, conveyed any such sufferer.
There are other provisions in the Bill which do not much affect this Parish;
several of those I have enumerated, appear calculated to be of use in the
promotion of public health.