Dr. R. Bruce Low's report to the local government board on an outbreak of enteric fever at Helmsley, in the Helmsley rural district, North Riding of Yorkshire.

  • Low, Robert Bruce, 1846-1922.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. R. Bruce Low's report to the local government board on an outbreak of enteric fever at Helmsley, in the Helmsley rural district, North Riding of Yorkshire. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    discharging into a culverted portion of the Beck. Two other parts of the stream are covered in. Into one or another of the three culverted portions of the stream several waterclosets discharge, and into tlie lowest portion, the main outfall of one of the sewered sections of the town also discharges. The bed of the Beck within the covered parts is not prepared in any way; loose stones lie in it, and a good deal of garbage and house refuse is cast under the archways. Broken crockery, discarded dishcloths, old pots and pans, as well as other refuse materials, help to obstruct the channel. To these articles the tilth discharged from drains and soil pipes clings, and decomposition of this sewage gives rise to bad smells in the vicinity of the archways. The worst, in this sense, of these archways, is naturally that situated lowest down, and which receives the most filth. At the date of my visit, the stench from the place where the Boro’ Beck emerges from the last archway just before joining the Bye was exceedingly offensive, especially in the evening. One or two houses, including the police station, having waterclosets, deliver their sewage by pipes emptying independently on the margin of the uncovered portions of the Beck ; and when the water in the stream is low, excrement accumulates in unsightly heaps at points along the bank. When a flood comes all this filth is swept away to the Bye. The condition of the bed of the Beck, and especially the condition of the channel within the three culverted portions of this stream, has formed the subject of reports by. the Medical Officer of Health to the Bural Council in past years. Since 1S76 the necessity for proper sewerage in the High Street has been pointed out by the sanitary officers. In 1875, a number of cases of enteric fever and of diarrhoea occurred in houses along the banks of this stream in the High Street. Some cases in schoolboys were attributed to their having adventured within these filthy tunnels. A scheme for sewering this portion of the town and for diverting the sewage from the Beck was then proposed. Ultimately an engineer was consulted and plans were prepared and discussed by the Sanitary Authority during 1878. The scheme, indeed, appeared to be in a fair way of being undertaken, when, unfortunately, early in 1879, the residence of the Earl of Beversham, to whom the plans had been submitted for approval, was burnt down. It was thought, at the time, that the sewerage plans had perished in the flames, but I have been informed that this was not the case. From this date, however, the question, notwithstanding annual reminders by the Medical Officer of Health to the Sanitary Authority, was allowed to drop, and nothing was done. However, in 1893, as the result of the inquiry into fever in Byedale, found to be associated with contamination of the Biver Bye by the sewage of Hclmsley, the sewerage question was again brought to the front. An engineer was engaged by the Bural Sanitary .Authority, and plans were prepared dealing also with the disposal of sewage at the outfall. The plans were, during 1895, submitted to the Local Government Board in connexion with an application to contract a loan to carry out the work. But it is to be observed that to reach this stage it has taken the Sanitary Authority nearly 20 years, though the necessity for such rvorks of sewerage has been pressed on their notice by the sanitary officers more or less during the rvliole time. The delay has doubtless been detrimental to those villages in Byedale, below Helmsley, taking their drinking water from the Bye.* There can be no doubt that in 1895 the specific discharges from some of the early cases of enteric fever in Helmsley reached the Boro’ Beck and the Bye, and it is likely also that in the first stages of most of the other cases before the fever diagnosis was made, the -washings from linen soiled by the patieuts’ borvel discharges similarly found their way into the w'atcr courses in question. Much of the house drainage .in Helmsley is defective. Faulty gradients, bad joints, and unskilled workmanship have combined, in certain instances, to cause frequent stoppages. Eor example, in making, recently, connexion of new house drains with a setver, an unskilled labourer was employed, w ho laid improperly jointed pipes to the sewer, in which a hole wras knocked and the pipe shoved through. Some houses have no connexion at all w ith the sewers. Slop wrater, in such cases, is thrown out upon bushes or tree roots in the garden. In one or two cases a hole has been dug in the garden and slop water * While this report is passing through the press, I learn that sanction to the loan has been given by the Board.