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48
Sanitary Work.
The three tables that will be found at the end of this Report,
headed Sanitary Work and numbered 1, 2 and 3, are the official
forms supplied by the Middlesex County Council to be filled in
by all local authorities in the County. They contain a full record
of the routine work carried out by the Health Department in this
district during the year, but much done by the Inspectors by means
of more or less unofficial suggestion and advice, cannot be set out
in any written report, though such work is frequently of great
value in prevention as well as cure.
It can hardly be expected that many will bother to digest all
the facts contained in any or all of these tables, or even to read
them, but in case anyone should be sufficiently interested in the
public health work of the district to do so, it may be pointed out
that Table 1 gives details as to the total number of inspections
made and notices served, and deals with dwelling houses, tenement
houses and common lodging houses. The number of inspections
and re.inspections amounted to 17713. Under the head of Notices
it will be seen that in only one case legal proceedings had to be
taken and that in that a conviction was obtained.
Table 2 includes the following matters :—
Canal Boats.
The inspection of canal boats used as dwellings is under the
sole charge of Mr. Smith, and the Government Inspector in his
Report paid a well.deserved tribute to the efficient manner in
which the work was carried out. That many visits of inspection
were made is shown by the fact that 46 contraventions of regulations
were found. Dealing with canal boats requires co.operation
between the inspectors of districts that may be far away from
each other, and it is easier to discover defects or contraventions
than to get them remedied. A boat must of course be in the
district when inspected, but there is no power to keep it there
till a notice can be served or a defect made good.