Mr W.H. Power's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of fever at Bedale in the North Riding of Yorkshire.

  • Power, William Henry, Sir, 1842-1916.
Date:
[1877]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr W.H. Power's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of fever at Bedale in the North Riding of Yorkshire. 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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    on an Epidemic of Enteric Fever at Bradford, Wilts, and on the General Sanitary Circumstances of the Town. Edward C. Seaton, M.D., Medical DepartTnent^ October 26, 1877. I,—General Description. The town of Bradford, in Wiltshire, is situated on both banks of the river Avon,, about eight miles above Bath. Koughly speaking, about four-fifths of the town lie on the northern side of the stream, occupying both the low-lying land in its immediate vicinity, and also the precipitous rocks of the Great Oolite, which rise rapidly until they reach a height of about 200 feet above the river, and on which are built a series of terraces, interspersed with rugged projections and small combes filled in with abundant foliage, the whole giving a striking and picturesque appearance to the town. On these terraces the houses, which are mostly occupied by the poor, are somewhat curiously constructed, two tenements being built, one over the other, in one block, the entrance to the lower one being in one street in front, and that to the upper one in another street behind, and at a higher level. On the south side of the Avon tho elevation above the river level is much less. The town is within an Drban Sanitary District, which consists of the town proper and of an area outside. The latter includes several villages and hamlets. The whole district has a population estimated at 7,000, and it is under the control of a body of Commissioners appointed under a special Act. The staple trades of the place are the manufacture of cloth and of india-rubber goods. II.—General Sanitary Circumstances. 1. Water Supply.—On the north side of the river the water-supply is derived from springs, which crop out in numerous places in the lower half of the town, the water being generally procured from wells or from reservoirs constructed in the rock. Some of the reservoirs are large and afford a public supply ; others are small, and are used for the purposes of private dwellings. Unfortunately, however, the numerous fissures in the rock, through which the water flows so freely, have long received a considerable portion of the liquid filth of the place, and so numerous and widely spread have the sources of pollution to the water-bearing strata in consequence become, that it is all but impossible to say, -with regard to any of the numerous supplies, that they are free from the risk of being fouled. With respect to the majority, it is quite evident that they are subject to such risk, and some of them have become so obviously foul, that their use has been abandoned. Owing to this cause, and also to the circumstance that in the higher-lying portions of the town, no water can be procured except at a consider- able depth, the supply is very scarce in several populous localities. Some of the inhabitants rely mainly on rain-water, others have to purchase a supply, or to procure it at such a distance from their homes as almost to prohibit the use of water at all. One person told me that the difficulty of carrying a scanty supply up the steep incline to her house was such, that one bucket-full had to serve the purposes of her household for several days, and I found it a not unfrequent source of complaint that cleanliness was under such circumstances all but impossible. On the south side of the river the supply is derived from wells, and some of these cannot, owing to the circumstances by which they are surrounded, be free from the risk of pollution. 2. Means of Sewerage and Draiiuige.—Until quite recently Bradford has through- out been most defectively sewered. The main sewers as well as the private drains have almost exclusively consisted of square stone channels often resting on, or being more or less excavated in the rock, through' the fissures in which their contents could in part soak away. But in some portions of the town there have been no drains at all; liquid refuse being thrown either into the roadway, or down the slopes of the rock, or again into cesspools the contents of which could freely soak away. In 1873, however, the Commissioners employed an engineer to prepare plans for the drainage of their district, and when I visited the town I found that about one-half of it had been provided with new sewers, although these had not yet been brought into general use. The remainder of the town either still retains its old sewers and drains, or remains without any provision for drainage, and no steps are at present in