Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hackney]
This page requires JavaScript
8
Nuisances Removal Act, and the Amendment Act
under the term "Nuisances Removal Acts," and is
most important, for it creates several new nuisances and
gives very large additional powers to the Board. It is
true, that these powers might be used so as to become
an annoyance to the inhabitants of the district, but I
trust, that although they have been actively enforced,
yet that sufficient discretion has been observed in carrying
them out.
One of the most important of the new provisions of
the Sanitary Act, is that which enacts that "any house
or part of a house, so overcrowded as to be dangerous
or prejudicial to the health of the inmates," is to be
considered a nuisance. There is also another section
of the Sanitary Act, viz., the 35th, which authorises the
Board to fix the number of inmates who may occuppy a
house; but under this section, the remedy is against the
landlord, and not against the tenant or person causing
the over-crowding. When over crowding notices were
first served, we took proceeding against the owners, but
found, that in many instances, the tenants had obtained
possession by mis-representing the number of their
family, or, had taken in lodgers contrary to arrangement.
As it seemed manifestly unjust to summons
a person when he was not the offender, I directed
notices to be served on the parties causing the overcrowding.
These notices were served in accordance
with the provisions of the 12th section of the Nuisance
Removal Act, and of the 19th and 21st sections of the