Dr. Ballard's report on the sanitary condition and administration of the Isle of Wight.
- Ballard, Edward
- Date:
- 1881
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Dr. Ballard's report on the sanitary condition and administration of the Isle of Wight. 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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![ample supply of unquestionably good water. I shall proceed to point out, in describing the sanitary condition of the district, what has been done, and in some important particulars what still requires to be done. The whole of the new town and the west end of the district has been sewered, and the sewage is discharged through the Ryde system of sewers and by its eastern outfall into the sea. Spring Vale, Sea View, Nettlestone, and St. Helen’s village have also been sewered, the two former having outfalls into the sea, and the two latter upon agricultural land in the vicinity. The sewers pat in by the Local Bca.d at Oakfield were originally provided with means of ventilation, but since the inhabitants found that stink issued from the ventilators some of them have been closed, either by the inhabitants themselves (with the passive concurrence of the Local Board) or by the Local Board. There is now no ventilation at Sea View or at Nettlestone, and very little anywhere else. Arrangements have also been made for flushing the sewers, but in consequence of the deficiency of water the flushing has not been carried out properly or thoroughly at all times. For the most part the houses in the sewered parts are connected with the sewers, but there are in some places houses still unconnected which might be and ought to be so connected. House drains generally are not provided with means of ventilation. In the sewered parts of the' district waterclosets are in general use, but commonly no water is laid on to them, the flushing of the pans being dependent upon the house slops discharged into them. The Local Board has not provided for the scavenging of the district, except that in St. John’s Park they have undertaken to clear the domestic ash-pits. Elsewhere the inhabitants are required by a byelaw of the Local Board to keep their premises free from accumulations of domestic refuse. It is supposedjthat, as most of the inhabitants either have gardens attached to their houses or allotment gardens away from their houses, the refuse will be used in them ; but at Oakfield I found in the yards of many of the dwellings considerable accumulations of filth, which evidently had been there for a very long time, and which, being in a state of decomposition, were calculated to endanger health. The Inspector of Nuisances admitted that he had not interfered with these nuisances, and the danger of permitting them does not appear to have been repre- sented to the Local Board by their Medical Officer of Health. During the last few years the water mains of the Ryde Corporation have been extended into Oakfield, High Park, St. John’s Park, and mostof Elmfield, and the polluted or suspicious well waters previously used for domestic purposes have been abandoned. In Oakfield, especially, where disease had evidently been greatly fostered by the drink- ing of polluted water, this has been a great boon. Every house there is now supplied with Ryde water. At Elmfield there are still some houses dependent upon superficial wells, the quality of the water of which requires to be carefully watched and is being watched by the Medical Officer of Health. All the other parts of the district are dependent for drinking water upon superficial wells, the quality of the water varving with season and other circumstances of locality, or upon store tanks for rain water, which tanks are with few exceptions improperly placed underground. It is obvious that not only must the quality of the water thus procured be open at times to suspicion, but that its available quantity is dependent upon variations of season. I have little occasion to animadvert upon the condition of the dwellings of the poor and labouring classes, except in respect of Oakfield. Here I found several of the houses dirty and unwholesome from their filthy surroundings, the yards of some of them being sodden with filth, unpaved, undrained, with pools of filthy water stagnating on them, and loaded with accumulations of dung and filth. Cows, horses, and pigs were being kept in undrained, and uncleansed, and ill-constructed stables or sties. In such a place as Oakfield, which is part of a district that has properly been constituted an] Hrban Sanitary District, this is a state of things which a Local Board ought not to permit to continue. The following table shows for recent years the mortality from all causes, and from certain specified diseases after exclusion of persons stated to have come into the district with their fatal illness upon them. I have added columns to show certain cases of sickness which were treated by the Poor Law Medical Officer, or as in-patients or out-patients by the Medical Officer of the Ryde Infirmary.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24996889_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
