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ducers, because the feeding of these animals thus near to the supply
has offered a profitable employment to those engaged in its gratuitous
collection, and because until the constitution of your Board as a
sanitary supervisor no impediment of consequence was offered to
the corruption of the air by the boiling of offensive offal and the
pollution of our open ditches by the drainage of extensive piggeries.
During the past year several prohibitory Magisterial orders have
been obtained against persons keeping Pigs in improper places.
removal of domestic refuse.
The speedy and regular removal of domestic refuse is an equally
important sanitary requirement, and yet there is perhaps none where
greater difficulty has been experienced in effecting it in this District.
However well the Contractor may be disposed to carry-out the
stipulation he has agreed to, he is greatly at the mercy of the men
employed by him. It generally happens, too, that the persons who
enter into these engagements with the Local Authorities are engaged
in other branches of trade requiring the plant necessary for carrying
into effect a contract of this kind, and hence it is much to be feared
that the collection of the refuse is made subservient to the other
more profitable employment of it. The men engaged are fully aware
of their irresponsibilty to the Vestries and District Boards, and that
their officers have no direct authority over them, and hence the
numerous complaints which continually inundate the Office with
reference to this subject. The time will come when the authorities
must take this matter into their own hands, and although it might
probably form an item of direct expenditure it will not be without
its indirect advantages.
sickness returns.
By the kind consideration of the Board of Guardians and the
Committee of the West London Hospital I have been enabled
through the past year to ascertain every week the exact amount of
pauper sickness prevailing in the District, and thereby to take
prompt measures for checking as far as possible the progress of any
special malady. This facility has been of vital importance particularly
with regard to cases of Small Pox which have occurred at
intervals. It gives me an opportunity also of observing what class
of disease may be incidental to particular localities: thus, of 97 cases
of Diarrhoea recorded in Fulham under the Union Medical Officers,
41 occurred in the immediate neighbourhood of North End, 21
in that of Walham Green, and 22 in Fulham Fields. Of 40
cases of Diarrhoea in Hammersmith 21 occurred in or near the
Rookery and Slater's Buildings, as also did 4 of English Cholera.
Of 10 cases of Fever recorded in Fulham 5 occurred in Crown-street
and Parson's Green; and of 19 cases in Hammersmith G occurred
in the Rookery, &c., and 10 in the neighbourhood of South-street