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5, Church Passage,
Guildhall, E.C. 2,
January, 1928.
TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE POET OF LONDON SANITARY COMMITTEE.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report for the year ending
31st December, 1927.
One thousand four hundred and eighty-six vessels were examined by the Boarding
Staff at Gravesend as coming under suspicion by reason of the ports visited during
the voyage, because of declared illness on board or for alien examination.
The total number of ''foreign'' arrivals at Gravesend for visiting by the
Medical Officers was 14,697. At Sheerness the arrivals were 708.
The number of cases of illness reported on by the Medical Officers was 866;
of these, 47 cases were removed to Denton Hospital. In this connection, I hope that
the number of cases on ships will dwindle as the result of international awakening in
the matter of ship sanitation and hygiene, and one can but look back with satisfaction
on the two visits of foreign Medical Officers to the Port under the auspices of the
League of Nations. No case of Plague or Cholera reached London, but one ship
produced plague-infected rats, she having come from a quarter which, though always
kept under suspicion, was not known at the time to be infected.
The number of fumigations for rat destruction on vessels rose to 136.
One hundred and six disinfections for Infectious Disease were undertaken.
In food inspection the apples from America were not found in any case to be
seriously contaminated with arsenic.
I have to note with satisfaction the great progress which has been made in the
provision of modern sanitary conveniences in the Docks by the Port of London
Authority.
One pavilion for infectious disease at Denton Hospital has been replaced with
a thoroughly up-to-date building.
Owing to the establishment of a Tilbury-Dunkirk daily service, it became
necessary to detail one officer to the examination of aliens—a return to conditions
which obtained before the War—necessitating an additional Assistant Medical Officer
at Gravesend.
The Annual Report of the working on the Canal Boats Acts and Regulations is
appended.
I have to record that during the year, in which the customary close personal
supervision of the work of the Authority's officers could not always be given the loyal
assistance afforded by the Staff has permitted no decrease in the efficiency of the
work done.