Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Dewsbury registration district, with special reference to the prevalence of infectious diseases in the district.

  • Thorne, Richard Thorne.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Dewsbury registration district, with special reference to the prevalence of infectious diseases in the district. 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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    -239 23 seats of the privies have been made to rise on hinges, but the regular deposit of ashes into the pit by this means is quite insufficient to ensure dryness of contents, because a midden, at times unroofed, is constructed at the back of the privy, and it is often sunk below the level of the surrounding ground. No public provision is made for the scavenging of the midden-privies, and great inconvenience at times results, because, owing to the circumstance that they contain so large a quantity of cinders, their contents are not sufficiently valuable as a'manure to induce the farmers to remove them. In a few instances an effort has been made to lessen this difficulty by excluding the larger cinders from the middens. A horizontal grating has been fixed across the middens, and it is intended that the inhabitants shall, after throwing their ashes and cinders upon it, rake them to and fro until the fine ashes have fallen through, and then remove the cinders. But such a plan as this fails in Birstal as it has done elsewhere, and the inhabitants, rather than go through this troublesome process, at once throw their dry refuse through the privy seat. The Authority requires that every three houses shall have at least one midden-privy, and no midden-privy is allowed within ten feet of the door or window of any house. 6. The Slaughter-houses are neither registered nor licensed. Some of the slaughtering is done in open shops. One slaughter-house was seen into which the only window of a dwelling-room opened, and the water-supply was from a i rain-water tank and from a well in an adjoining yard, the contents of which were admitted to be unfit for domestic use. Another was seen which drained into an open midden. Under a local Act the Authority have special powers to construct a public slaughter-house, but as yet no steps have been taken in this direction. 7. The Common Lodging-houses are registered and subjected to regular inspection. The minimum cubic space for each occupant is 300 feet. None of the apartments registered are used by day as well as by night. 8. General Sanitary Administration.—The Local Government Act was adopted for Birstal in 1863. Since that date its sanitary condition is stated to have undergone considerable improvement, and both a wholesome water-supply and means of sewerage and drainage have been provided for nearly the entire district. The Medical Officer of Health does not hold his appointment under the Order of the Local Government Board ; he receives an annual salary of 251., and holds a similar appointment in the adjoining urban sanitary district of Birkenshaw. He is provided with a return of deaths occurring in the district, but as this is only sent to him monthly, and since it is not supplemented by any immediate notice in case of a death from infectious diseases, it is practically useless so far as preventing the spread of disease is concerned. There is no provision in the district for the isolation of persons suffering from infectious diseases, neither is there any mortuary accommodation, and, beyond the gratuitous distribution of certain “ disinfecting powders and fluids,” nothing is done by way of disinfecting infected houses, clothing, and other articles. Under these circumstances the Authority is practically powerless to prevent infectious diseases which may be imported from assuming an epidemic form, and at the date of my inspection an epidemic of scarlet- fever which had attacked about 100 persons had only just subsided. When small-pox prevails the Medical Officer of Health has hitherto found no difficulty in procuring the removal of the patients to a hospital for infectious diseases at Bradford, but this means of isolation has been limited to this one disease.—-The Inspector of Nuisances gives a part of his time only to the performance of the duties attaching to his office, and receives a salary of 201. a year. 9. General Mortality Statistics and Prevalence of Disease.— Table No. VIII. gives the mortality statistics for the urban sanitary district of Birstal for the three years, 1875-77. The mean general death-rate from all causes was 19’6 per 1,000 living, and it was at its lowest in 1877, when it was 17‘9 per 1,000. The mean death-rate, from “ fever,” which was enteric fever, has been high, namely, 5*2 per 10,000, living; it was very high, namely, 8’9 per 10,000 in 1875, but since that date it has steadily fallen to 14 per 10,000. Its tendency again to increase or further to diminish will probably depend on the action of the authority in dealing with conditions which favour the breathing by the people of an air tainted with the emanations from ill-constructed and ill-man- aged midden-privies and from improperly constructed and ill-ventilated house drains. Scarlet fever was epidemic in 1875, and again towards the end of 1877, when the epidemic which has been referred to, and which prevailed up to April 1878, commenced.