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4
General Health of the District.
The curve showing the course of the notifiable infectious
diseases, the death-rate, and the tabular statements as to the
causes of death, all show that the month of February was
fairly healthy.
In one of the sub-districts (St. John), the birth and
death-rate are both abnormally low. It may, however, be
well to mention that the addition to the population of the
district of St. John of so much good-class residential
property, as detailed in the Report for January, will tend to
permanently lower the death-rate of that particular district,
and hence render the comparison with the rates of former
years of little value.
The Water Regulations.
The various Water Companies acting in combination,
having, in the face of the determined front of all the Municipalities
of the Metropolis, withdrawn the regulations, the
discussion of the scope of these regulations rather belongs
to past than present history. As it is, however, quite
possible that they may be re-introduced under a different
form, the writer would like to take an opportunity of
recording his view of the two regulations which excited the
greatest interest and opposition, viz., the one destined to
limit a waste water preventer to two gallons, the other the
compulsory provision of cisterns of a particular size.
The principle of the first is entirely wrong. If it be
once admitted that a Water Company has the power to
dictate what quantity of water shall be allotted to cleanse a
closet pan, to be perfectly consistent they should have the
power of saying how much or how little water should be used
to wash a yard, a room, or even for personal ablution. The
necessary amount of water for use in closets depends on
circumstances, and the particular pattern and type of closet.
The closets that conform most perfectly to the hygienic
conditions laid down in the London County Council byelaws,
are what is known as valve closets; these closets cannot