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18
is ten times more fatal in this spot than in any of the surrounding
districts.
The General Death-rate varies from 40 to 60 per 1000, per annum ;
of these deaths the very large proportion of 87.5 per cent., are under five
years of age, and nearly all the deaths, I again observe, occur from
Zymotic diseases: the most appalling fact, however, connected with this
subject and one most likely to make a deep sensation in the public mind,
is that for a period of three years, the average age at death is under
twelve years. Surely with such a melancholy fact as this before us, no
one will say that anything short of the entire removal of the animals
will cure the gigantic evil.
DRAINAGE.
The question of Drainage is of vast importance to the health of the
community, and we may congratulate ourselves on the excellent sewerage
we possess in the parish. Very few of our localities are without
sewers, and the natural elevation of different parts of our district,
combined with the good inclination there is to the river, must give us
a great advantage over many other metropolitan parishes.
The object of good and efficient sewerage is, first to remove decomposing
matter held in suspension, and secondly to carry off surplus
water :—ibut it must be borne in mind that unless this be properly
carried out, the evil intended to be abated may be increased by extending
the evaporating surface of decomposing matter, and by shifting,
it from one place to another, saturating our atmosphere with organic
poison. It thus becomes the duty of your medical officer to draw
your attention to this subject.
The effect of gases in a concentrated form (as when pent up in
sewers), we all know, is to produce instant death to any one subject to
their influence: and without doubt, as surely, but more slowly, do such
emanations however diluted, tend to swell the Bills of Mortality: and
it is a well ascertained fact that Fevers, Cholera, and Diarrhæa, decimate
those neighbourhoods which are most imperfectly drained.
Although, since my appointment, large numbers of cesspools have
been filled, blocks of houses been efficiently drained, and good
closets erected in place of most offensive open privies, much still
requires to be done; as it is no easy matter to discover those houses
which have cesspools attached to them, unless complaint be first made.