London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

City of London 1930

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Port of London]

This page requires JavaScript

22
The greatest possible care is taken in the inspection of ships, and in the completion
of the Certificates which are in the form approved for International use by the Office
Internationale d'Hygiene Publique.
In order that the Port Sanitary Authority may know as soon as possible after
a ship has arrived whether she is in possession of a valid certificate, a card index
has been prepared with a separate card for every ship entering the Port of London.
Among other entries on such cards is the nature, date and port of the certificate last
issued. Every morning the list of arrivals is gone through by a clerk, who picks
out the corresponding cards and notifies the Sanitary Inspectors of the names of the
vessels which require examination.
It is also desirable to know the previous rat history of ships. This is kept in the
form of a graph, the number of rats destroyed being shown vertically, and the date
of fumigation or exemption horizontally. Such a graph is attached to the office
copies of certificates of each ship, and thus it is possible at a glance to take in the
past history.
Difficulty has been experienced in regard to foreign-owned vessels, by reason of
the Agents refusing to accept responsibility for the fee charged for the certificates.
To overcome this a form of request for inspection and the issue of the appropriate
certificate, and an agreement that the fee payable should be chargeable to the ship's
account, has been prepared for signature by the master.
Since inspection cannot be completed until a vessel is empty, it often happens
that ships leave the port before the certificate on the official form can be completed.
In such cases a temporary certificate is issued certifying that a Deratisation or
Exemption Certificate, as the case may be, has been granted and will be forwarded
to the ship in due course.
Owing to the fact that there are some ships which are only completely empty
at long intervals, no hard and fast rule has been made that Deratisation Exemption
Certificates will only be issued to ships which are completely empty at the time of
inspection, but on the other hand no such certificate is issued unless the ship is either
empty or has remaining on board only cargo of such a nature and in so small a
quantity that a thorough inspection can be carried out.
Although the form of certificate provides for Deratisation by Trapping, this is
rarely practised in the Port of London, and then only when the evidence of rats is
localised to one or two small compartments. Similarly local fumigations are only
permitted under exceptionally favourable circumstances.
Your Officers always keep in mind the fact that this work is of International
importance, and make every effort to ensure that certificates issued in the Port of
London shall give the Port Medical Officers abroad an accurate and clear record of
the results of inspection, and that there shall be no reasonable grounds for adverse
criticism of the decision to grant an Exemption Certificate, or of the measures of
Deratisation taken, as the case may be.

Eats Destroyed during 1930.

TABLE E.

(1) On Vessels.

Number ofJan.Feb.Mar.April.May.June.July.Aug.Sept.Oct.Nov.Dec.Total in Year.
Black Eats113834583 ;1047865691672041061421,259
Brown Rats277113443-44210178176
Species not Recorded5195465434633373556686532132975124605,566
Rats examined1409056861488165732092141231501,435
Rats infected with Plaguenilnilnilnilnilnilnilnilnilnilnilnilnil

See also Appendices XXVI., XXVII. and XXVIII.
Total includes 1,751 Rats not accounted for in Tables " G," " H " and " I," being a number of Rats voluntarily notified
by Private Rat Catchers as having been trapped on vessels from non-infected ports.