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have been performed. Some portion of the time of Messrs.
Wood and Langman has been taken up in attending to the new
duties imposed on them under the Adulteration of Pood, &c.,
Act—especially in attending the police court to conduct prosecutions.
Much of the work of general inspection is still done in
a desultory way, owing to the magnitude and inconvenient configuration
of the parish, and to the necessity of attending to complaints
as they arise from day to day—a necessity that impedes,
more or less, the important duty of systematic inspection of the
houses in streets, &c., inhabited by the poorer classes of the population.
It is desirable that the 35th clause of the Sanitary Act,
1866, should be adopted, in order to the registration and regular
inspection of all houses which are let out in tenements. No doubt
this would involve much additional work for a time, but the benefits
would be commensurate, for the risk of overcrowding would
be diminished, ventilation would be improved, and the cleansing
of the rooms, staircases, &c., would be systematically carried out.
It seems to me that this is the direction sanitary improvement
should take in the future; and the staff having been increased by
the appointment of an additional officer, I am not without hope of
being able to bring the subject under the notice of your Vestry
at an early date, with reasonable prospect of success. A principal
difficulty in connection with sanitary administration is that
of securing an efficient record of work done—a difficulty which has
been much lessened in this parish by the conspicuous care and
ability with which Mr. Rudman has performed the clerical duties
of the department.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your very obadient Servant,
T. ORME DUDFIELD, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.
Vestry Hall, Kensington,
August, 1875.