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44
tion I could obtain on the existence of endemic
disease* in your several districts, I have furnished
the Inspectors every week with a variable list of
houses, ranging probably from fifty to one hundred
and fifty at a time, for their visitation and inquiry.
The information which I have directed them to seek
has referred of course to the various details of
sanitary condition—to questions of lodgment, ventilation,
cleanliness, drainage, water-supply, dustremoval,
paving of yards and cellars, existence of
nuisances, and the like: and I have constructed
tabular forms for their use, which admit of this
information being recorded and reviewed in the
readiest manner. Week by week, before each
meeting of your Court, I have had the habit of
going through every particular of these somewhat
considerable details. I have sorted out of them
those very numerous cases in which your lawful
powers could be usefully exerted; when I have
deemed it necessary, I have myself made visits of
verification or inquiry; and have finally laid before
you, in the form which is familiar to your weekly
meetings, such recommendations as the week's
* This information has been mainly derived from two sources:
—first, from the weekly Death-Returns of the nine City Registrars,
which the Registrar-General most kindly allows me to
have transcribed so soon as they arrive at his office;—secondly,
from weekly Returns which the Medical Officers of the three
City Unions have had the great kindness and liberality to supply
for my assistance, as to the existence of fever and kindred
disorders in the several localities under their charge.