View report page

Chapter XXXIV.
Public Health.
Powers and
duties of the
Council.
(i.) The Public Health (London) Act, 1891, by which the Council is authorised to make orders
adding to the list of offensive businesses, and regulating the establishment anew of offensive businesses,
or the enlargement of premises on which such businesses are being carried on; to make
orders adding to the list of notifiable infectious diseases, and to extend any of the provisions
of sections 59 to 74 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, to other dangerous infectious
diseases than those specified in that Act; to require weekly returns of infectious diseases from
the Metropolitan Asylums Board ; to license slaughterhouses, cowhouses, and knackers's yards ;
to take proceedings with respect to nuisance caused by sanitary authorities in removing, treating or
disposing of house or street refuse ; to act in default in cases where local authorities fail to carry out
their statutory duties, including the enforcement of by-laws made by the Council; to make by-laws for
regulating (a) the conduct of offensive businesses, and the structure of the premises on which they
are being carried on, etc.; (b) for regulating the removal or carriage of offensive or noxious matter
or liquid and as to the removal and disposal of refuse and (c) as to water-closets, earth-closets,
privies, cesspools, and receptacles for dung.
The Council is also required under this Act to pay half the salaries of local medical officers of
health and sanitary inspectors ; and may make representations to the Local Government Board as
to the number of sanitary inspectors appointed. Copies of all periodical reports of medical officers
of health must be given to the Council, and in the event of any medical officer failing to carry out
this requirement the Council may refuse to contribute towards his salary.
(ii.) The Common Lodging Houses Acts, 1851 and 1853, part IX. of the London County Council
(General Powers) Act, 1902, and part V. and section 79 of the London County Council (General
Powers) Act, 1907, by which the Council is authorised to license common lodging houses ; to require
the names of all deputies to be submitted to the Council for approval; to make by-laws for regulating
the conduct of such houses and to cause any inmates thereof who may be verminous to be cleansed
compulsorily, if necessary.
(iii.) The licensing of seamen's lodging houses and the enforcement of by-laws made by the
Council under the provisions of section 214 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.
(iv.) Part VIII. of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1903, authorising the
Council to license premises for receiving horses for slaughter or dead horses.
(v.) Part V. of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1904, which authorises the
Council to seize and slaughter, on payment of compensation to the owner, any cow in a London cowshed
suspected of tuberculosis of the udder.
(vi.) Part IV. of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1907, by which the Council
is authorised to take and examine samples of milk entering London, to proceed to the place from
which any sample proving tuberculous was sent to London, to examine the cows thereat, and, if any
are found to be affected with tuberculosis of the udder, to prohibit the supply, within the county, of
further milk from the animal so affected.
(vii.) The approval of dairies and cowsheds and the examination of cows under the Dairies,
Cowsheds and Milkshops Orders, 1885, 1886 and 1899.
(viii.) Section 9 of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1908, authorising the
Council to make by-laws for regulating the conduct of a fish curer, a vendor of fried fish, and a rag
and bone dealer.
(ix.) Section 6 of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1908, provides that the
Council may contribute any sum towards the salary of each health visitor appointed by a Metropolitan
Borough Council not exceeding one half of the salary.
(x.) Part IV. of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1904, and Part 111. of the
London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1909, authorising the Council to represent to the Local
Government Board when a sanitary authority has made default in carrying out its duties in regard
to the purifying and cleansing of articles and premises, and to accommodation for the storage of food.
All by-laws are, however, subject to approval by the Council and no proceedings can be instituted
against, or representation made to the Local Government Board as to default of, a local sanitary
authority until the proposal has been approved bv the Council.
Small-pox.
The total number of cases of small-pox notified during the year was 7. Of these cases 5 were
subsequently verified to be small-pox.
Typhoid
fever.
Investigation was during the year made into certain localised prevalences of typhoid fever in
London in 1910. An area in Bethnal-green was especially affected, but study was also made of a
number of localised prevalences of typhoid fever in other parts of London and in Edmonton and
Tottenham. Examination of the facts failed to show in each instance that any ordinarily accepted
cause of typhoid fever had been operative, but it was found that all sufferers had partaken of fish
(usually fried fish), and that in every instance in which information on this head could be obtained,
small plaice belonging to the category described by fried fish vendors as " late steamer fish " had been
used for food. As many of the small plaice sold at Billingsgate come from an area in which are
situated certain "nursery grounds'' not far from the mouth of the Elbe, it was suggested as a
possibility that estuary fish might be in question, and the of the City Corporation was
directed to the matter.