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47
SANITARY WORK.
The sanitary work carried out in the Parish of Lambeth
during the year to which this report refers has been of a
satisfactory nature, the number of cases dealt with by the
inspectors has exceeded that of any former year. The
amount of work which has been accomplished has been
more extensive in quantity, as well as more permanent in
character, and, as a consequence, more effectual in the
improvement of the sanitary condition of the Parish. The
former result has been attained by a modification in the
routine of the everyday work of the inspector. The labour
has been divided and the work specialized. A clerk is
occupied with the correspondence, the book-keeping, and
the general clerical service of the office, which formerly
devolved upon the inspector. The inspector is relieved
from duties which can better be performed by the clerk, in
consequence he is in possession of a more extended period
of time, which he is enabled to devote to the more valuable
service for which he has been especially trained, and to
accomplish that, which, under the previous organization,
would not have been possible: the latter effect has been
derived from an altered system of inspection. Formerly,
unless under unusual and exceptional circumstances, houses
were net visited, nor works for their sanitary improvement
carried out without a formal complaint of an existing
nuisance had been made, or without something had happened
which had led the sanitary inspector to believe that
his presence in that place was required ; but at the present
time, within the divisions of the parish to which the duties