Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon the sanitary condition and administration of the Rochester urban sanitary district / [John Spear].

  • Spear, John.
Date:
[1889]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon the sanitary condition and administration of the Rochester urban sanitary district / [John Spear]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to the extension of business premises or the like, but very little, if any, action in this direction appears to have been taken by the Authority. Provision against Infection.—In conjunction with the Chatham Urban Sani¬ tary Authority an isolation hospital, used also by the Rochester Port Sanitary Authority, was provided towards the close of 1883. It is situated about a mile and a half from the centre of the city, and consists of two ward pavilions, with means in each for the separation of the sexes. The accom¬ modation it affords, for some 32 patients in all, must be regarded as somewhat meagre for the population it is intended to serve, but the Authority are alive to the possible necessity of temporary extension. It has evidently done much good service, and the inhabitants of the city are said now to accept eagerly the advantages it offers. In his annual report for 1885 the Medical Officer of Health states that 60 cases were removed to this hospital during the year from the Rochester district alone—38 cases of scarlatina, 9 of diphtheria, 9 of enteric fever, and 4 of small-pox—and that after removal of the initial sufferer no spread of the disease occurred in any case. In 1888 and the first two months of 1889, 77 patients from this district were thus isolated. There is no organised system of notification of infectious disease in the district, and it is believed that many cases escape the attention of the sanitary officers. Where discovered, in addition to the removal of the sufferers as often as possible to the hospital, disinfectants are supplied gratuitously, and occa- sionly houses are disinfected by the sanitary officials. A hot-air disinfecting chamber (Ransom’s) is provided on the hospital premises. The number of small seafaring craft entering the Port of Rochester exposes the town no doubt to some danger from the importation of contagious disease. The waters at the mouth of the Medway, and in the Thames below, are within the jurisdiction of the Port of London, and infected vessels from abroad entering the port would be liable to detention there. The town council acts as Port Sanitary Authority for Rochester, and the Medical Officer of Health for the city holds the same office for the port. Two “ conservancy ” officers are retained as inspectors of nuisances, and they, it is said, exercise supervision for the purpose of the discovery of any infectious disease on ship-board. Barges are registered and inspected. Administration.—The Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Sladen Kuight, is not appointed under the Board’s Order, and copies of his reports are not forwarded. He receives a salary of 501. per annum. Various improvements have evidently been forwarded by him. The embankment of the river to prevent flooding at Strood, the periodical removal of house refuse, the provi¬ sion of a constant in place of an intermittent water service at Strood, the gratuitous treatment of patients at the fever hospital, are amongst the measures advocated by him in his reports and since adopted by the Sanitary Authority. No formal representations have yet been made to the Authority under the Artizans and Labourers Dwellings Acts, nor any of importance as to houses unfit for habitation. In the all-important matter of disposal of excrements there may have been some want of insistence in specific advice; nevertheless, I cull the following from his reports :— In 1879 certain cases of typhoid fever are attributed to defective privy accommodation, and “ several cases of illness of a non-infectious character at Herbert’s Cottages, Strood, are caused by “ the bad smells arising from defective privy arrangements.” In 1880 two cases of typhoid fever in John Street are reported as “probably due to the saturation of the soil from cesspools,” and in another report of the same year the necessity of improved drainage is referred to. In 1882 “ many cases of typhoid fever ” are reported, and “ the chief element of danger and the grand u source of the outbreak has arisen from a soil saturated from overflowing cesspools owing to “ excessive rainfall, and until the cesspool system is replaced by efficient drainage this will be <c always liable to recur.” In the first half of the following year enteric fever is again reported as “ prevalent to a considerable extent in the Medway Division, although only three deaths have “ occurred.” In 1887, “ I look forward to the period when through a well-devised system of “ drainage the receptacles for filth now abounding in our midst, sources of many ailments with iC which the population is afflicted, may be known only as evils of the past; and that cases of “ typhoid fever, due in great measure to the pollution of the air and the water by this accumulation “ of filth, may become rarer than they have hitherto been, if not altogether disappear; and I beg tf earnestly to commend to your consideration the desirability of carrying out these works from “ which so great benefits may be confidently expected.” There are two inspectors of nuisances. One, who is in feeble health, receives a salary of 521. per annum. The other was, I am told, mainly appointed to superintend the scavenging operations, and certainly devotes the greater part