A manual of hygiene : public and private, and compendium of sanitary laws ; for the information and guidance of public health authorities, officers of health, and sanitarians generally / by Charles A. Cameron.
- Charles Alexander Cameron
- Date:
- 1874
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A manual of hygiene : public and private, and compendium of sanitary laws ; for the information and guidance of public health authorities, officers of health, and sanitarians generally / by Charles A. Cameron. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![venture to assert that few persons would object to the slight taxa- tion necessary to have their ashpits, and refuse receptacles gene- rally, systematically cleansed. In many parts of England the private scavenging is now performed by the sanitary authorities. Amongst the many useful sanitary arrangements in force in New York is one which directs the application of a deodorizer to night soil before its removal. Dr. Trench, the able Medical Officer of Health for Liverpool, stated some years ago that he would certify against lst]y. Midden-privies inside houses. 2ndly. Midden-privies emptied through houses. Srdly. Midden-privies situated beneath rooms. 4thly. Tunnel middens of every description. 5thly. Combined open middens sup- plying many tenements and placed near to inhabited rooms. 6thly. Midden- privies of private houses clustered together in a cul-de-sac. 7thly. Midden- privies of private houses in close, contined yards or situated beneath windows or abutting on the walls of houses, or within two feet of the lower windows or of the door of the house. 8thly. Midden-privies of courts. 9thly. Midden-privies abutting on or opening directly into streets and thorough- fares, and emptied before the doors and windows of houses. lOthly. Midden- privies of front houses when emptied through a court, llthly. Midden- privies beneath the footpath of the sti-eet and emptied through a grid on the footpath. 12thly. Midden privies of many houses, when collected together as a kind of amphitheatre, as is seen in particular groups of streets. Midden and cesspool mean much the same thing. Tenantable Condition of Houses.^—I have already referred to this subject under the head of Duties of Health Officers. It is difficult to prevent houses from being overcrowded and dilapidated. The owners of tenement houses do not, as a rule, expend a penny on repairing or cleaning them that they can possibly avoid. They generally resent the interference of the health officer, and in a large proportion of cases legal steps are necessary to oblige them to abate the nuisances which he discovers. The occupants of the houses are also often averse to the visitations of the inspectors, especially when their rooms are overcrowded. Increased accommo- dation to them means increased rent. Houses and rooms in a dilapidated state are a nuisance. Very dirty^ houses are also a nuisance, and the magistrate may direct them to be whitewashed or otherwise cleansed, should the owners refuse to do so when re- quested by the sanitary officer. Any house in which a zymotic disease has repeatedly broken out may be regarded as dangerous to health. A magistrate's order should be applied for to close such a house until such time as, by disinfection, cleansing, or structural works, it may, in the opinion of the medical officer of health, be deemed fit for re-habitation. Cellars built since August, 1848 (the date of the passing of a Public Health Act), cannot legally be held as separate dwellings ; nor can any underground room be let or occupied as such, unless it be 7 feet high, its roof 3 feet above the street level, and pro- ' 29 & 30 Vict. c. 9, section 35, and 31 & 32 Vict., c. 130, sec. 5.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21045045_0034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
