[Report 1886] / Medical Officer of Health, Salford County Borough.

  • Salford (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1886] / Medical Officer of Health, Salford County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    intrinsically of filth pollution of the air, the dwelling, or the ground ; they are in fact, the inevitable result of overcrowding, and may be produced at will, either by the aggregation of persons in unventilated dwellings, or by the mere accumulation of dwelling-houses on an insufficient area. It is to the persistence of these faulty surroundings, in varying degrees of intensity, from year to year, and to the evil habits thereby engendered amongst the inhabitants, rather than to any abnormal or mysterious agency—that are to be attributed both the increase in the death-rate of 1886, and also the permanently high fatality which besets infantile existence in Salford. In each of my last three annual reports, I have drawn attention to what I have denominated “weak spots” in the sanitary condition of the borough, and I have offered to the Committee certain suggestions as to the course of action which appeared to me likely to conduce to the improvement of the public health. Inasmuch as the Committee have not as yet seen their way to the adoption of my recommendations, I trust they will not think me importunate if, with great respect, I venture again to ask their attention to these unhealthy conditions, in the hope that during the current year they may receive full consideration by the Committee. The principal weak spots in our sanitary armament are the following, (1) the unsatisfactory character of the homes of the people and of the sewerage in the oldest parts « of the borough, (2) the filthy condition of the River Irwell, (3) the objec¬ tionable system still adopted in certain districts for the removal of nightsoil, and (4) the continuance of the private slaughter-house nuisance amidst the homes of the people. With regard to the first of these items of complaint, I believe that in my reports of 1884 and 1885 I have fairly substantiated the contention that there still remain not a few districts in the borough the house accommodation in which is structurally so defective as to be dangerous to] health, and where the general sanitary conditions are so inveterately faulty as to be incapable of amendment by ordinary methods. It is obvious therefore, that unless these “ plague spots ” are to be allowed permanently to discredit the sanitary reputation of Salford, they will require fundamental and quite exceptional treatment at the hands of the Sanitary Authority of the borough. I would therefore suggest as a preliminary measure—and with the object of affording to the Sanitary Authority the information necessary for effective action—that a special representative committee or sub-committee should be appointed in Salford, which should be invested with the duty of examining the unhealthy areas referred to, and of reporting