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Councillor Davison, growing indignant upon
the report, said it was too ghastly and absurd to ask
anyone of common sense to believe ; it was a silly
report, and he was pleased to say that this was
the last time such a report would be imposed upon
them.
Councillor Glover maintained that some of the
roads were dirty and that the report was a truthful
one.
Aid. Allard said a protest should he entered
against the last speaker's observations. No one
wished to repress a proper report from the
medical officer, but they did not wish him to
obtrude into every department of the council,
when they could get better advice from other
officials. Taking a strictly serious view of life,
he must say that he also fell foul of the report.
In 1892, when the late medical officer submitted
his annual report he (the speaker) suggested that
its presentation should not be delayed until May,
but that it should be sent in as early in the year
as possible. Since then the report had been received
earlier and this year the council received
it on January 21 ; but his satisfaction at receiving
the report earlier was a good deal diminished by
its contents. Some of the references were very
objectionable. Dr. Collins started off by saying
that he had neither great epidemics to record
nor controversial matters to discuss and criticise ;
but he (the speaker) was sorry to say that he
took up 26 pages and an extraordinary diagram
dealing with matters which he said were
uncontroversial. (Laughter.) He suggested that the
medical officer should not make his reports so much
like a page of the "Leisure Hour" or like a gossiping
London letter of a provincial newspaper. He
was astonished when he told them that a certain
amount of dampness was caused in a small house
by the washing of the domestic linen. They were all
familiar with the washing of domestic linen, and
dampness was not the only evil which it caused,
for heat and strife were sometimes generated.
(Laughter.) Further on, the medical officer told
them that in Edinburgh a room was provided
with cells, supplied with hot and cold water,
where washerwomen could wash themselves ; but
he was glad that Dr. Collins' modesty and delicacy
prevented him from penetrating further, and
that he said nothing more of the ablutions of
Edinburgh lasses. (Laughter.) If an officer belonging
to a particular department was to comment in
such a report upon everything, the council would be
landed into a most extraordinary position. Imagine
the surveyor discoursing upon diabetes or
dysentery, or the school attendance officer telling
Mr. Edgcome about the electric light ! He
believed in giving a medical officer every latitude,
but if Dr. Collins were less romantic, and confined
himself to what strictly belonged to his
report, they would be better satisfied. He had
every confidence in Dr. Collins, at the same time
he felt that Councillor Lambert was perfectly justified
in bringing forward his motion.
The resolution was then put and carried, and
the council rose after sitting two hours and forty
minutes.