[Report 1908] / Medical Officer of Health, Pontypool Local Board / U.D.C.

  • Pontypool (Wales). Local Board.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1908] / Medical Officer of Health, Pontypool Local Board / U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tionable diseases that sap the very foundation of the health of the youth of your district. These persons spread infectious disease over which your officers have no control, and the effects of the same are only too often brought to the notice of the Medical Man when the damage is past repair ; and the Medical Officer of Health is obliged to stand idly by and is powerless to interfere. These con- tagious disorders, instead of being lessened by the march of education and scientific discovery, are more rife in your district than they were twenty years ago. and the effects are more apparent. An effort is being made by the Poor Law Authority to deal with Tuberculosis of the Lungs by Notifica- tion, but I feel certain that efforts should be made to stamp out the venereal diseases that infest the country, and which are so productive to misery in parent and offspring, even more so than Tubercular affections, which are most evident in the sufferer ; but the diseases to which I allude are transmitted to the third or fourth generation, and to a great extent account for the weedy miserable specimens of humanity seen about. I am aware that you have no power to revive the Contagious Diseases Act, but you could so improve your house accommodation as to lessen the holes and corners in which conveyors of disease lurk. Your system of sewage is practically the same as it was when I reported last—the sewage of your district still finds its way into the Afon Llwyd river. An improvement has been made in the sewerage, in- asmuch as all main drains in Clarence-street and Mill-road are now pipe drains. All old box drains are swept away ; the last of these in Clarence-street and Mill-road have been effectually dealt with. I must still revert to the system of sewerage adopted in the Western Valley. I am still of opinion that the trunk system is the best for all time, and although your area is but a small unit among the several districts in the Eastern] Valley, I should strongly recommend you to adopt the tunnel scheme if the question again arises ; and my reason for think- ing so, and for advising you, is that once the sewage gets into the tunnel it is swept away to the outlet and creates no nuisance or expense, whereas the various systems of sewage treatment requires con- stant supervision and constant outlay,and I am not convinced thatiany of them are perfect. All the districts in the Eastern Valley are pollu- ting the^Afon Llwyd river with their sewage, and I