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3i
The views I entertain respecting the cause of diphtheria have been
given in previous reports and in a special report. The above statistics
appear to bear out some of these views, viz., that during a period of
rainfall, causing the sewers to be well flushed, more especially when
the atmospheric temperature is not high, the tendency of diphtheria
to prevail is lessened. The question must be naturally asked, why
does diphtheria prevail when such a large amount of sanitary work is
being carried out in respect to houses, inasmuch as their drains are
being intercepted, ventilated, and their rain water pipes disconnected.
The answer to this query must be: That the sewers ought to be
ventilated, more especially as by modern sanitation the sewer gases
are more and more confined in the sewers, and the gases escape in
large doses by means of the street ventilators. Defective and foul street
gullies and foetid accumulations in the road channels are also the
means by which the air becomes polluted. The advice given by your
Surveyor, Mr. Oxtoby, to build flushing tanks at the heads of the
shallow sewers (which advice has been carried out in two or three
instances), when fully adopted, will no doubt be greatly beneficial
to the public health, and will save the ratepayers money, by obviating
the necessity of constantly breaking open the roads, in order to
clear the sewers, which, in this District, have a shallow fall. The
Surveyor's recommendation to pave the street channels, will also
prevent emanations from polluted ground, in many cases very near
the houses. It is necessary to impress upon the public the danger
of piling vegetable refuse, &c., in heaps, in their back gardens and
yards, which practice is so commonly found to exist. This refuse
should be dug into the ground to nitrify, so as to become food for
plants, &c., or should be put into pails supplied by the Board, to be
carted away, and should not be left as a festering mass, causing
diphtheria and diarrhoea.
All the structural sanitary work possible, such as rectifying defective
drains, affording under-floor ventilation, and covering sites of houses
with concrete, will not prevent disease, if back yards and gardens
remain in a constantly foul condition. At the beginning of the year