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7
PORT OF LONDON SANITARY OFFICES,
51, KING WILLIAM STREET,
GREENWICH, S.E. 10.
TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE PORT OF LONDON
SANITARY COMMITTEE.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Report for the year 1916, the first of
a new series.
The abnormal conditions which have obtained in the port and in every department
of work connected with shipping render comparison with former years difficult.
The number of cases of grave infectious disease dealt with has been small. No
case of Plague or Cholera has been found in or has entered the port.
The routine examination of rats found in the Port District, which is an essential
provision against the introduction of plague, has been carefully carried out.
I have recorded an epidemic of Enteric Fever on shipboard. Such occurrences
appear to be now somewhat rare.
The supervision of shellfish layings in the Thames Estuary within the port limits
has been continued. Action has been found necessary with regard to certain layings, as
recorded below.
During the year the subject of Venereal Diseases has been brought into practical
prominence by Regulations tramed to procure free treatment for all suffering from these
diseases, and an extended number of practitioners competent to administer the efficacious
drugs or other curative treatment. There is scope for effective work in this matter
in the port, and your officers have taken up this work.
Food inspection has been complicated by the arrival of abnormal quantities of
damaged and deteriorated produce ; a usefui outlet for such material has been found
wherever possible under suitable guarantee against its use as human food.
Important questions arose in connection with imported canned meats prepared from
tuberculous carcases, and in connection with tuberculous pig carcases.