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"Inspectors of Nuisances; and it will be for the Medical Officer to include in
"his report an account of the action which, at his instance, the inspectors
"may have taken for the removal of nuisances injurious to health."
"What has been said above with regard to the information which an
annual report should contain must be understood, not as suggesting that the
'report should be limited to these subjects, or that more detailed or differently
"arranged tabular statements may not be added, but as indicating the sort of
"information required by the Board's Order. Many Medical Officers of Health
"will doubtless, with great advantage to the administration of their districts,
"furnish much more detailed information respecting particular questions to
"which they have been led by the circumstances of the foregoing years, to
"devote attention, or in the investigation of which they may have arrived at
"valuable conclusions."
In explanation of the means which enable me to offer my Report for your
consideration within a fortnight of the termination of the year to which it
refers, I need only say that not only the Tables which I personally keep, but
most of those for which the Inspectors are responsible, are kept up to date
throughout the year. We are thus enabled week by week, and in the most
important matters, day by day to see immediately what is the condition of the
District. Is any part of the District unduly attacked by any zymotic disease?
We have the information ready to lead to a rigorous examination of the cause.
These various sheets are always in view, so that at any time should a visitor
desire to know whether a child could safely be sent to a country home, it is at
once seen whether any case of infectious disease was recently notified from the
house where the child lives. When the year expires, nearly all the Tables contained
in my Annual Report, are ready to be presented for your perusal, and
copious notes of the leading subjects are available to further assist me in the
early compilation of the Report.
In considering the various items of information which I have tabulated in
the "Appendix,"attention must be drawn to the fact that since I commenced
to issue Annual Reports, the Sub-Registration districts have been twice decreased
in number. Originally there were five, viz. :—Spitalfields, Mile End
New Town, Whitechapel Church, Goodman's Fields, and Aldgate. The
retirement of the late Mr. Sparks was made the occasion of the union of
Goodman's Fields with Aldgate, and now the death of Mr. John Hall has induced
the Registrar-General to make another change : Part of Whitechapel
Church will be added to the amalgamated Goodman's Fields and Aldgate
Sub-Districts,—and the larger part (including the London Hospital) will be
absorbed into the Mile End New Town Sub-District. This new arrangement
of districts will of course interfere in the future with my custom of contrasting
the conditions for the current year with previous years, so far as these altered
sub-districts are concerned, but on the other hand there are good reasons for
the change. On the 1st January, 1899, the registration work of the three
new sub-districts commenced under the three registrars already in occupation
of the appointments.
The great question which has occupied the attention of the East End
Boards and Vestries during the summer months, has been how the inability
on the part of the East London Water Company to maintain a constant
service of water could be dealt with.
The history, so far as our district is concerned, may be stated chronologically
thus:—On Monday, the 22nd of August, the East London Water
Company discontinued the constant Service and the Water was 'turned on in
the District for three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening. On
Monday, the 29th of August, a special Board Meeting was convened, and