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Disinfection and cleansing of persons and clothing and of the
bed clothing and furniture used by men in the Forces.—This not only
has been, carried out in consequence of the occurrence of infectious
diseases, but to a very large extent also for the suppression of verminous
conditions which have arisen amongst the men. The disinfection was
in a large number of instances accompanied by cleansing baths of the
persons of the men affected.
Control and visiting of Billets.—The billets have principally
been arranged by the military authorities through the police. The police
in accordance with the arrangements made with the Medical Officer of
Health have regularly—when fresh troops have been billeted—come over
to the Public Health Department and struck out from the list of billets
those houses in which any infectious condition whatever was known to
have occurred at all recently or was actually in existence.
The billets have also been regularly and systematically visited by the
Sanitary Inspectors for general cleanliness and sanitary arrangements
and for the purpose of learning of any infectious condition.
Hutments on the railway lines.—These have been regularly
inspected and an efficient sanitary control exercised.
The work resulting from the presence of troops in our midst
has very greatly increased the labour of all the members of the
staff of the department, both medical and lay. I have
pleasure in recording the great willingness which all the staff have
displayed in carrying out the extra duties which have thus been
imposed upon them. A very large amount of overtime has been
worked by all the different sections of the department, and all
these efforts have been made in the spirit of hearty co-operation.
I have pleasure in recording the fact that my own personal
relationships and the relationships of those members of the staff
who have come directly into contact with the members of the Forces
have been of the most friendly and agreeable nature.
SPECIAL ENQUIRY INTO THE BACTERIOLOGICAL
PURIFICATION OF WATER.
Although Croydon is one of the most fortunate of the large
towns of England and Wales in the possession of a water supply
of remarkable natural purity, one of the wells yields a w_ater which
—at long intervals—gives signs on bacteriological examination
of a possibility of contamination. Although even on these occasions
this water was much further from the danger zone than that
often consumed by other similar communities, the Council were
of opinion that steps should be taken to ensure a degree of purity
as nearly as possible absolute. An extensive bacteriological
investigation into certain methods of water-purification was carried