Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
This page requires JavaScript
23
generally, to carry out the Act loyally. All that is now necessary
to keep up this high standard of success, is united action on the
part of the Vaccination officers, who should inform one another of
changes of residence of unvaccinated children; report to the
Guardians any breach of the Act, and refuse to accept any evidence
of successful vaccination excepting a certificate by a public vaccinator,
or a " duly registered medical practitioner."
SANITARY WORK.
Table F. (appendix) exhibits in a compendious form the principal
items of Sanitary Work, &c , accomplished during the year. A few
subjects require, by reason of their importance, a more detailed
notice. And first of all I may mention that the district of the
Potteries, Netting Dale, has received a good deal of attention, but
less than I could desire So long as pig-keeping is kept up it
will bo impossible to put the place in a proper Sanitary condition,
as it is dangerous to attempt any thorough inspection without the aid of
the police. The parties directly interested in the pig feeding business
are few, but they are noisy, and those who would be glad to have the
benefit of regular visits from the Sanitary Inspector, are unwilling to
incur the odium of making complaints. A good many inspections have
been made nevertheless, and considerable progress in the eradication of
the pig nuisances. Several cases have been taken before the Magistrates,
who appear now to be fully alive to the unfitness of the locality for the
keeping of swine, and the necessity of our measures.
There are very few premises where the keeping of pigs is not prohibited,
though fresh cases turn up from time to time. It was formerly
our custom to sue offenders upon prohibited premises for penalties at
the rate of ten shillings a day for disobedience of the Magistrates' order;
but the difficulty of obtaining entrance and proof was so great that we
have abandoned that plan, and now ask for the full fine of forty
shillings in each case, for the offence of keeping swine in an unfit
locality. The Magistrates informed by repeated cases of the
practical contempt of their orders have inflicted this larger penalty,
and thus the work of four separate inspections has been effected by one
visit, and with the best possible lesults. There are at the present time
comparatively few pigs in the Potteries, but Kensington parishioners
have reason to complain that they still suffer the nuisance, so many of
the pigs having been removed into an adjacent parish, close to our own
boundaries, whence come the most numerous complaints Some of the
former pig feeders still live in the Potteries, where they collect and boil
the various abominations known as " wash." In some narrow and
confined premises large accumulations of this stuff are to be seen, and
must be dealt with like any other offensive accumulation, while the
boiling—the source of many complaints, must be stopped as an
" offensive trade."
A good many complaints have been received of the bad smells proceeding
from sewer ventilators, and in several instances the charcoal
filters have been applied with satisfactory results. It cannot be too