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they requested me to make with regard to towns and places
where the powers of the Acts had been exercised. Meanwhile
I had brought the subject under the notice of the
Society of Medical Officers of Health, and the Society, after
full deliberation, had resolved "(1) That the Acts (viz., Sanitary
Act, 1866, section 35, and the Sanitary Law Amendment
Act, 1874, section 47) are practicable; (2) That it is desirable
they should be put into operation in London and
other large towns; (3) That it is desirable to have a
uniform code of regulations for the Metropolis, and (4) That
it is advisable the Society should undertake the framing of
such a code."
The Council of the Society, to which the matter was referred,
requested me to draft a code. and the draft so prepared
having been approved by the Council, and subsequently
by the Society, it was sent to nearly two hundred medical
officers of health in different parts of England, and suggestions
by way of amendment were invited. All such suggestions
having been duly considered, the Council finally submitted
the draft, as amended, to the Society, by which it was approved,
and in May, 1879, the regulations were published
"for the guidance of Urban Sanitary Authorities."
I brought these proposed regulations under the notice of
the Special Purposes Committee, and on the 17th June, 1879,
they reported, recommending that "the regulations proposed
by the Society of Medical Officers of Health" be adopted
and forwarded to the Local Government Board for sanction.
This report was referred back by your Vestry. As I have
already stated, I had been requested in April, 1879, to ascertain
to what extent the Acts had been adopted in other Metropolitan
parishes, and throughout the country generally, and
the result of my enquiries having been to show that the Acts
had been adopted in very few places only, whether Metropolitan
or Provincial, and that in the majority of such
places the provisions had been carried out in a somewhat
perfunctory manner, the Committee finally advised your Vestry
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