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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health.—1898. 19
SECTION II.—GENERAL.
The Salvation Army Shelter.
During the past year no cases of infectious disease have been reported from this
???helter. During the day time—that is to say, while devoid of inmates—the building
as been visited by your Sanitary Inspectors. For many years past I have advocated
???le desirability of systematic night inspection of such resorts. Under present
Conditions your Vestry have no legal right to make such visitation, which could
???adily be instituted, however, by including them within the Common Lodging
???ouses Act. The legal aspects have been established by proceedings taken by your
???uthority several years ago. Briefly stated, Her Majesty's Judges decided that these
belters did not fall under the Common Lodging Houses Act, to which Mr. Justice
???Vills added: "The case was clearly one in which the Public Health Act, so far as
isinfection was concerned, ought to apply, but does not."
Public Lavatory Accommodation.
During recent years much attention has been directed to the important subject
of Public Lavatory accommodation. Thus two old-fashioned structures above-ground
???vere demolished at the time of the Jubilee; while, under the powers conferred by
he Public Health (London) Act, 1891, your Authority constructed an underground
Convenience, for men only, near the '• Elephant and Castle," in 1893.
Plans approved by the Vestry at the time of my last Report awaited the result
of Government inquiry, for the construction of two additional underground Conveni???nces,
namely, one (for men only) at the Obelisk, St. George's Circus, and the other
for both sexes) at the junction of the Old and New Kent Roads. Both have
received Government approval, aud are now in course of construction. A third (for
women only) is shortly to be established on the premises of the new Public Library,
in the Borough Road. Of these two will be free for women and three for men.
Before leaving this important subject it may be well to add, in the interests of
the general public health, the following suggestions, which, if carried out, could
hardly fail to add to the comfort and wellbeing of a poor and crowded population :—
(a) The provision at each of these points of accommodation for both sexes.
(b) Ample free accommodation generally for both sexes, which appears to be
imperatively called for in a poor district.
Alcohol.
The question of alcohol has an important bearing upon the wellbeing of any
community, but more especially in dealing with a poor and crowded district like that
of St. George the Martyr. Nowadays, the fact is widely recognised that mortality
statistics furnish little trustworthy evidence as to the actual injury to life that results
from the abuse of alcohol. Thus, very many deaths attributed to diseases of organs,
such as the kidneys or the liver, are in reality due to intemperance. Another great
contributing factor is that the drinking habit, even in its milder phases, renders its
victims much less able to resist the onset of acute maladies. There can be no doubt
that alcoholism is in many cases to be partly attributed—in its first stages, at any