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APPENDIX NO. 1-
ANNUAL REPO&T
OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.
From 1st Aprils 1876 to 31 st March, 1877.
THE VESTRY OF THE PARISH OF R0THERH1TIIE, SURREY
Gentlemen,
It has been my custom in these annual statements to inform you of any advance that has been
made by the legislature in amending or completing our Sanitary laws, although they may be regarded as
incomplete, no legal enactment of consequence has been made towards their improvement since I last addressed
you; it would however be wrong to infer that this lull in sanitary legislation can last long, or that it arises
from a feeling that enough has been done in this direction, to protect the health and prolong the life of this
great community, but we should rather attribute it to the difficulties encountered in dealing with some of these
questions, and it is probable that some sanitary matters of importance will remain legally unsettled, until the
mind of the public and in some cases those engaged in administering sanitary laws, are more enlightened with
respcct to the circumstances which influence epidemic diseases, the baneful effects of breathing bad air, the
poisonous effects of sewer and some other gases, and the evil and demoralizing influence occasioned by
living in dirty, unhealthy, and uncomfortable houses.
From year to year I have brought under your notice the fatal effects of some of the most importan
diseases in the zymotic class, young children are the chief sufferers, and the mortality is very high compared
with the deaths occasioned by other diseases, at the time I made my former annual statement, Scarlatina was
the prevailing epidemic, it was then on the decline, and may be said to have ceased about the middle of 1876,
formerly I have alluded especially to the destructive effects on life produced by this disease, and expressed an
opinion that isolation of the patient and better accommodation and management in the houses of the poor,,
arc required to lessen its ravages.