View report page

175
At the meeting held November 21st, 1883, your Vestry
resolved unanimously, "with reference to the large and increasing
number of houses which are let in lodgings, or occupied by
members of more than one family, and to the necessity, in the
interest of public health, of sanitary supervision of such houses,"
to take steps for carrying out the provisions of the above sections
of the Sanitary Acts.
The subject had been under consideration in 1878, when the
stall' in the Sanitary Department was increased, and in an
exhaustive report on the work of the Department, which I
prepared for the Special Purposes Committee it was recommended
(inter alia) that the provisions of the Acts should be put in force
by the making and carrying out of Eegulations.
No action was taken upon this part of the Committee's
report at the time; but in the following January (1879) your
Vestry instructed the Committee to consider the steps necessary
to be taken for carrying out the above recommendation. The
Committee resolved, in April, to defer the further consideration of
the subject, pending the completion of an enquiry, which they had
requested me to make with regard to the operation of regulations
in metropolitan parishes and provincial towns 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 had resolved "(1) That the Acts (viz., the
Sanitary Act, 1866, section 35, and the Sanitary Law Amendment
Act, 1874, section 47) are practicable; (2) That the Acts 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 the Society should undertake the
framing of such a code."
The Council of the Society requested me to draft a code, and
the draft so prepared having been approved by the Society, it was
sent to nearly two hundred medical officers of health, suggestions
by way of amendment being invited. Proposed amendments
having been duly considered, the Council finally submitted the
draft code to the Society, by which it was approved, and in May,