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PORT OF LONDON SANITARY OFFICES,
GREENWICH.
July, 1892.
TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE PORT OF LONDON SANITARY
COMMITTEE.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit herewith a short account of the
Sanitary work carried out by your officers in the Port during the first half
of the present year (1892).
In Appendix A it will be seen that the total number of vessels inspected
was 8,167, of which 216 only, or 2.6 per cent. required any special cleansing,
and in the majority of these the actual requirements were comparatively small.
Obviously, however, the main object of continuous Sanitary supervision is
to gradually diminish the number of the latter class, which, with the slightest
relaxation of vigilance would be found rapidly to increase in number.
The chief aim of Sanitary work is the prevention of disease, and its
theoretical carrying out would tend to render its existence impossible, while
the practical result is clearly shown in the immunity of the country from
imported disease.
Of the total number of vessels inspected, no fewer than 7,022 = 85.98 per
cent. of the total number were sailing under the British flag, while the
Scandinavians and Germans follow with 5'63 per cent. and 4.59 per cent.
respectively. (See Appendix B.)
This shows a small falling off in the British, and a corresponding increase
in the foreigners.
In Appendix E a list is given of the structural alterations carried out by
order of the Port Sanitary Authority for the improvement of the Sanitary
condition of vessels.
248 such have been completed, affecting 208 vessels, while 15 only,
affecting 13 vessels, are still either not yet finished or have not since been
inspected.
In my last Half-yearly Report certain remarks were made with reference
to the carrying out by Board of Trade officers of the "Instructions to their
Surveyors."
It was there mentioned that practically these Regulations were never
carried out in their entirety, the reasons being, firstly the fact that they go