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17
The records of your committee will shew that a large amount of sanitary
work has been carried out during the past year, a detail of which will be
given in your customary annual report to the Board. Several important
decisions have been obtained, and it is pleasing to observe that success continues
to attend your efforts in e»*ery case in which you have ordered
proceedings to be taken before the magistrate.
concluding remarks.
The general sanitary results of the year cannot be considered otherwise
than satisfactory, but there is still every possible reason for continued and
energetic exertion.
The great problem still to be solved presses strongly on my mind. A re
we prepared to meet the outbreak of any serious epidemic ? Is the
population of the Fulham District yet in a position to present all attainable
opposition to the generation and extension of preventible disease ? I feel
that we yet fall far short of this much to be desired end.
Some of the miserable hovels which lie scattered through these parishes
must be obliterated from their maps, much of the cottage property must
be remodelled, damp and unwholesome yards be paved with some impermeable
surface, a yet more frequent removal of domestic refuse, a large
extension of the water mains, and other available sources of supply, a well
developed system of public supervision over the children of the poor, and
a more enlarged sympathy with the general physical condition of the
working classes are necessary before we can reach this goal. I cannot
conclude this Report without thanking you, gentlemen, for a large
amount of personal exertion in visiting and investigating with your officers
many of the cases of nuisance which have been brought before you, by
which they have been most materially (and beneficially to the district)
supported in their labours.
If, in the prosecution of my duties I have sought in any way for more
to be done than in your discretion you have thought desirable, I trust you
will consider I have been prompted only by a desire to place the Fulham
district in the best possible sanitary condition, and if in what has been
done, my portion of the labour has merited your approval, it will be a lasting
gratification to
Gentlemen,
Your Faithful Servant,
FREDERICK J. BURGE,
April 21st, 1859. Medical Officer of Health.
TO THE SANITARY COMMITTEE.
Board of Works, Fulham District.
" Gentlemen,—In compliance with your request I have the honour to
lay before you the following report upon the most advantageous means
of ventilating sewers, and of deodorizing the gases arising from them.
The very ingenious apparatus invented and proposed by Mr. Bean, your
Surveyor, appears to me admirably adapted to accomplish the mechanical