Volume 2

First-[second] report of the Royal Sanitary Commission.

  • Great Britain. Royal Sanitary Commission
Date:
1869-1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First-[second] report of the Royal Sanitary Commission. 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.

    213/418 (page 205)
    to builders to erect houses for the working classes, a great improvement would be speedily effected in the public health, for it is principally owing to the un- healthy condition of the houses of the poor that so much illness exists. The hardship of the operation of the sanitary laws presses most severely on those leaseholders whose leases will expire in a few years, when such leaseholders are required to make exten- sive structural alterations in their property. When such is the case, there should be power given to the local board fairly to adjust the expense between the leaseholder and the ground landlord. Under the Nuisances Removal Act considerable delay sometimes takes place before a nuisance can be removed, in con- sequence of it being necessary to obtain the authority of the board before the sanitary officers can take proceedings to obtain an abatement of the nuisance. I would suggest that in all cases of emei'gency, such as a stopped privy or overflowing drain, that power should be given by statute to the medical officer of health to take legal proceedings without Avaiting for the authority of the board to compel the immediate removal of any nuisance which by its continuance might endanger the public health. V *C 12,345a. {Chairman.) Have you anything further to add ?—I should like, finally, to say a few words upon what ought to be the functions and authority of the medical officer of health. 1 should say that the medical officer of health should not be engaged in private practice, but that his undivided attention should be directed to all those matters connected witli the preven- tion of disease. That he should be entirely free ffora all local influence. That the area of his district should be of much greater extent than now prevails. That the present number of medical officers of health should be reduced, and a uniform plan of action in all matters relating to the public health be adopted. That the 23 June 18'0. medical officers of health should be made responsible J. Liddle, Esq for the sanitary condition of the district, and the local lioards be free from all responsibility in the matter, provided that they shall have afforded the medical officer of health everything he may reasonably require for the proper discharge of his duties. That, upon the representation of the medical officer of health of the necessity of carrying out the several clauses in the Public Health Acts, which are only of a permis- sive nature, the local authority should be compelled to put them in force. That the medical officers of health should have power to engage at the public expense, the services of an analytical chemist, and of a skilled anatomist and pathologist to assist him in the proper discharge of his duties. That the medical officer of health should have power to engage, at the expense of the local autliority, the services of a sufficient staff' of sanitary inspectors, who should report to him daily of the general and particular sanitary condition of the district, and who should keep a proper record of all inspections made and work done. That the medical officer of health should inquire into every death, the cause of which has not been certified by a registered medical practitioner. That, in every instance, the fact of death should be verified by a medical practi- tioner before a certificate of death is given. That, as it is almost impossible to combine in one individual that of a skilled anatomist and pathologist, of a prac- tical and analytical chemist, and one possessing a thorough knowledge of practical medicine and surgery, it would be of more service to the public interest to look for and appoint to the olFice of medical officer of health, a gentleman of good education, and one pos- sessing first-rate administrative talent, and giving him full power to obtain professional assistance in every department that he may think necessary, j / ^ The witness withdrew. (laf) Tom Taylor, Esq., further examined. T.Tciyhr, Esq. 12.346. {Mr. Powell.) I wish to direct your atten- tion to the latter part of the 44th section of the Nuisances Removal Act, 1855, namely, the pro- visions of this Act shall not extend or be con- strued to extend to mines of different descriptions, so as to interfere with or obstruct the efficient working of the same, or to the smelting of ores and minerals, or to the manufacturing of the pro- duce of such ores and minerals. And in con- nexion with that to the 14th section of the Sani- tary Act, 1866, in which it is enacted That the expression Nuisances Removal Acts shall mean *' the Acts passed in the years following of the reign of Her present Majesty, that is to say, the one in the session of the eighteenth and nineteenth years, chapter 121, (that being the Act of 1855), and the other in the session of the 23rd and 24th years, chapter 77, as amended by this part of this Act ; and this part of this Act shall be construed as one with the said Acts. And I wish to ask you whether in your view the inclusion in that 14th sec- tion of the Nuisances Removal Act, the 18th and 19th of Victoria, restricts the operation of Part II. of the Sanitary Act of 1866 ; and, more particularly the point before us is its eflPect upon the 19th clause of the Act of 1866, giving an extended definition of nuisances ?—I shoulrl think that the 19ih section of the Act of 1866 is controlled by the 44tli section of the Act of 1855. 12.347. {Mr. Shaw.) The 19th section of the Act of 1866 is so worded as merely to say that the word nuisances under the Nuisance Removal Acts shall include so and so ?—Yes. It seems to me that the 19tb section of the Sanitary Act cannot extend to mines or smelting processes, or any of the things excepted, in consequence of the operation of the 44th clause of the Nuisances Removal Act. 12.348. {Chairman.) Having had this point brought to your notice, and bearing in mind your long ex- pei-ience upon this subject, what would be the general terms you would suggest for a consolidated Act upon this ])oint ?—I do not know what the form of the consolidation Act would be. I presume you would include the 19th section of the Act of 1866 in the sanitary provisions ; but I presume if you intended to preserve the exemption which the 44th clause of the Act of 1855 introduces, it would have to be a general exemption, and, therefore, it would come after all the Nuisance Act provisions. You would, I apprehend, put clause 19 in its proper place, and then you Avould say, provided that none of those provisions should extend to mines, smelting processes, &c. 12,349. {Mr Powell.) The next point upon which we want your judgment is this : the Sewage Utiliza- tion Act of 1867, takes j^ower to deal with land and so on, and then at the end of it it says, [§ 5], Subject to this restriction, that in any appropriation which may be made of land held by a sewer authority for the above purposes, care shall be taken that pro- vision be made for receiving, storing, disinfecting, or distributing all the seioage which it is the duty of the sewer authority to cause to be disposed of in that manner. One's first impression in reading those words is, that any community which thinks fit to deal with land in this way has laid on it the duty of dealing with the whole of their sewage in this manner, and that they cannot deal with the sewage of one section of a town in this manner, but that they must take the whole of the sewage ?—I presume that means that they shall take all the sewage that they have pro- vided their lands and works for. If they had arranged to take, for instance, the sewage of a particular quarter of the town, and to dispose of it by irrigation, it would be their duty to dispose of all that sewage in that way ; not that it is their duty to take the sewage of all the town, but that the sewage which they calculate upon taking in that way they shall be bound to dis- pose of in that way ; that they shall not carry away Cc 3