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19
LIST OF ACTS ADOPTED IN HARROW URBAN
DISTRICT.
Infectious Disease Prevention Act 1890.
Public Health Acts, Amendment Act 1890.
Public Health Acts, Amendment Act 1907.
BYELAWS IN FORCE.
Common Lodging- Houses, Slaughter Houses, Nuisances,
Cleansing of Earth Closets, Privies and Ashpits, Removal of
House Refuse, Houses Let in Lodgings, Provisions of means
of escapes in case of fire, Factories and Workshops, Pleasure
Grounds and Open Spaces, Fish Frying, New Streets and
Buildings, Dairies, Cowsheds and Milk-shop Regulations.
THE GIPSIES (SO CALLED).
I want again to draw your attention to the encampment
of gipsies constantly in our midst, and to show that their
presence is a menace to the public health. Unfortunately
the type found in our lanes and fields is a most undesirable
one. There is no doubt that these gipsies are a dirty and
immoral race, and should be controlled. The good word
these people receive in song and fiction is pure moonshine;
they are thieves and evil livers; the women go out to sell
and beg; the men are for the most, part idle and drunkenHuddled
together in their filthy vans we find the children
often neglected not so much in the mat,ter of food as in the
matter of cleanliness. They are allowed to become verminous,
their education we know is neglected, and they must
often be witnesses to many gross evils.
We found recently several gipsy children in this verminous
condition. The National Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children prosecuted, and obtained a conviction
against the Parents. Last November in a neigbouring district
a swab was taken from a gipsy child by a local doctor
and found to be positive of Diphtheria. When sought for, the
family had fled, but the Sanitary Inspector and the doctor
eventually overtook them at Greenford and had the child