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Again, in regard to the use of powders and fluids in
connection with the drainage of a house. A number of
articles are upon the market, which, although called
disinfectants, are in reality only deodorants, or at most
antiseptics, and they are used more often than not in a
manner which merely hides an objectionable effluvium,
probably due to an accumulation of decomposing fats.
It is a pity that attention is not given to the proper
cleansing and flushing of gullies and drains. They require
to be kept clean just the same as the cleansing of a house is
necessary, but in a large number of cases my experience is
that they are rarely if ever touched, and sooner or later the
emanations become extremely unpleasant.
A great deal depends upon attention to details in the
home. Just as a filthy cistern may contaminate the water
supply, whereby the microbe is responsible for disease and
death, so may the absence of attention to details of cleanliness
be responsible for a general lowering of vitality, and so
render the person susceptible to attacks of disease.
These acknowledged conditions should be a strong plea
for a better understanding of the laws of hygiene, and I
believe these can be most fittingly learnt by including them
in the school curriculum.
The steam disinfector will be requisitioned in the future
for the disinfection of articles of clothing and bedding
belonging to patients suffering from tuberculosis, and every
facility given to owners as regards the disinfection of houses
vacated by tubercular persons, before such houses are again
let.
In 4 instances schools were disinfected after the closure
of the school owing to the prevalence of infectious disease
amongst the scholars.
During the school holidays the whole of the schools
in the district were thoroughly disinfected as a precautionary
measure against the spread of infection.
PUBLIC HEALTH ACTS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1907.
PAVING OF YARDS AND PASSAGES.
Twenty-seven notices have been served under section 25
of the above Act, to properly pave or flag the surfaces of yards