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17
METEOROLOGY.
The mean temperature of the whole year was 49.°8, which is half a degree
above the mean of 25 years. The winter and autumn, however, were not so cold,
and the spring and summer were not so warm, as usual. January, February,
April, June, October, November, and December, had a higher mean temperature
than the mean of preceding years. Rain fell to a depth of 30.5 inches, which is
1 inch above the average of 15 years. There was more than usual horizontal
movement of the air.
The meteorological conditions were not at all those which have usually
attended Cholera in this country.*
There is every reason to believe, that had the summer and autumn been
hotter and dryer, the pestilence would have raged with even greater violence
than it did.
SANITARY WORK.
In January of last year I called the attention of the Vestry to the probability
that an epidemic of Cholera was impending, and urged the necessity of
increased energy in carrying out sanitary precautions. This report was at the
time considered to be too strong, and was the occasion of my being called an
alarmist without sufficient cause. I was asked for a second report to justify the
statements made in my first. In this second report I entered into further
details, and after its consideration the Yestry were, I believe, convinced that
there was some need for the adoption of additional precautions. The events of
the year amply proved that my warning was necessary. Two additional Inspectors
were appointed to make house-to-house visitations, and they were
actively engaged for three months before the Cholera made its appearance
amongst us. They entered upon their duties on the 2nd April. The results of
their inspections were such as to convince all who investigated them, that houseto-house
visitation was much needed. During the first week of their inspections
144 houses were examined, which were occupied by 1729 persons. Of
these, 86 houses were filthily dirty, 64 were generally out of repair, so as to
render them unfit for occupation, 31 had no receptacle for ashes and house-refuse,
the drains of 12 water-closets were stopped up, in 3 there were open cesspools,
in 74 there were offensive accumulations of house refuse.
In the next four weeks, 537 houses were examined, in which 3433 persons
lived. Of these, 322 were filthily dirty, in 71 there were open privies or cesspools,
in 80 the drains were untrapped, in 282 the closets were without water
laid on to them, in 332 the ashpits or dust-bins were either wanting or so delapidated
as to be useless.
These house-to-house inspections were carried on with corresponding results
until the house-to-house visitations ordered by the Privy Council were carried
out by the Medical Visitors and their assistants, and by means of these visitations
an immense number of nuisances and sanitary defects were brought to
light. The rooms occupied by 7000 separate families were visited by the six
District Medical Officers and the seven Medical Assistants. The nuisances
which they detected were followed up by the four Sanitary Inspectors, and
occupied the whole of their time in taking measures for their abatement. In
856 houses a flusher was sent in to cleanse and disinfect the closets from time to
time during the Cholera season, and whitewashes were also employed by the