Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Stourbridge registration district, and on the late prevalence of scarlet fever therein.

  • Parsons, H. F.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Stourbridge registration district, and on the late prevalence of scarlet fever therein. 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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    promises on each occasion was too few to induce the Company to incur the expense of laying down mains. Excrement Disposal.—Midden privies are in general use in Quarry Bank, the only exception noted being at the Board Schools. The ashpits are very large, deeply-sunk, wet, and open, in some cases without walls, and often receiving the drip off the privy roof. Other privies were without ashpits, the excrement running out over the ground. Little, if any, effort appears to be made to improve the privy system : a new privy, approved by the Sanitary Authority, had a long double-holed seat, at one end of which, so situated that the excrement and ashes could not intermingle, was the ashpit, 5^ feet long by 4i feet wide, and dug out 2 feet below the ground; it was roofed over, but the drainings from a pigstye ran into it. The Sanitary Authority have contracted for the removal of excrement at 53/. a year ; the work is done in the daytime, with watertight carts. There were large accumulations of ashes in some of the ashpits. If the Sanitary Authority wish to see an example of a better system, they need not go farther than the Board Schools at Quarry Bank. The closets at these schools have beneath each seat a shallow wrought-iron pan; these pans are frequently emptied, and the dust swept off the schoolroom floors is poured into them day by day, to cover the excreta and absorb moisture. When visited they were clean and dry, and perfectly free from offensive odour. In adapting a system of this kind to households, ashes might be used instead of dust; but frequent emptying is essential to success in any such system. Vital Statistics.—The deaths in the Quarry Bank District during the past six years are given in the following table. Causes of Death. 1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. Scarlet Fever _ _ 6 1 ! 2 43 12 Measles - - - - 9 — 3 3 — Diphtheria - - - 1 — ' 1 — Croup - * 2 1 1 5 — 1 Whooping cough ' — — 1 2 2 — Typhus fever * “ — 1 — — 1 — Enteric fever - - - 2 2 2 1 1 1 Other fevers - - - 1 1 — — 2 — Diarrhoea - - - - — 3 3. 1 3 2 Phthisis - - - - 4 6 3 6 6 4 Inflammations of Lungs - - - 20 29 29 27 30 25 Heart disease - - - - 8 2 9 2 6 6 Injuries ... - - - 3 4 7 1 4 4 Convulsions - - - 8 19 11 11 7 12 Other diseases of nervous system - - - 5 5 6 6 4 1 Wasting diseases of children - - - 24 10 16 12 15 14 Congenital causes - - - 10 4 9 6 1 4 Old age - - - - 2 3 5 o 7 9 Other causes - - - 10 30 ii 9 34 22 Total deaths - 1 115 121 113 99 170 117 Rate per 1,000 per annum - - - - 18-1 19-1 17-8 15-2 26-9 18-5 Ditto corrected for workhouse deaths - - 18-8 19-9 18-6 16 3 28-0 19-3 The average corrected death-rate has thus been 20 • 2. Sanitary Administration.—This is vested in a Local Board, who meet once a month. There are no byelaws in force in the district, but the Sanitary Authority are in correspondence with the Local Government Board relative to the adoption of a code. The Medical Officer of Health, Mr. G. Ashmead, who acts in the same capacity for Brierley Hill, has held office in this district since 1873 ; he receives 30/. a year salary, and is not under the Board’s order. He receives monthly returns of deaths and makes frequent inspections in the district. Shortly after his appointment the Medical Officer of Health commenced a house-to-house survey of the district, the results of which are summed up by him in a report dated April 4th, 1876, thus : “ The Local Board will gather