[Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Godstone R.D.C.

  • Godstone (Surrey, England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Godstone R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/70 (page 22)
    so that closing the school at once seemed likely to be of use in arresting the progress of the epidemic, a suggestion which I have previously said was readily adopted. With a view to if possible ascertaining the source from which the epidemic arose, I visited the schools first and made a close inspection of them in company with the Sanitary Inspector. The sanitary arrangements consisted of three earth closets for the Infants and Girls, and two more, together with a urinal, for the Boys. These earth closets were defective, and being without the usual supply of earth, were offensive in consequence. They were, however, usually emptied at regular intervals by someone specially engaged for the purpose —who also flushed the urinal at the same time. The water supply was from a well from which a sample was taken and on analysis proved to be unfit for drinking purposes. There being no lavatory, the drainage merely provided for the conveying of the rain water by pipes into a neighbouring ditch. These sur¬ roundings, though unsatisfactory and highly injurious to the health of the children frequenting the school and whose average attendance was about 160, would probably influence both schools alike, and would therefore scarcely justify the conclusion that they were the source of an outbreak of illness which affected exclusively the children in the Infant School; consequently the probability arises that the disease was imported from without and that the influence of the school was merely instrumental in its propagation and extension. On comparing, too, the dates upon which the children fell ill with those of their attendance at school as marked in the register, it is to be noted that some were at school during the day, or part of it, upon which they afterwards fell ill, which in the case of an illness like diphtheria would mean that such children would be a source of infection to others during those school hours, extending even to the books, drinking cups, and other articles which they individually might make use of. Several children, too, were in the habit of bringing their dinner with them and remaining during that hour instead of going home, being provided with bottles of tea or other beverages. These bottles were frequently passed from one to another and sometimes made use of by other children than their owners, for obtaining water from a pail, pro¬ vided for the purpose, wherewith to quench their thirst, thereby affording a ready means of conveying infection ; and it is even reported that sometimes they drank from the pail direct, which would still further favour its transmission. [22]