Report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the causes which have led to, or have aggravated the late outbreak of cholera in the towns of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead, and Tynemouth.

  • Great Britain. Cholera Inquiry Commission.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the causes which have led to, or have aggravated the late outbreak of cholera in the towns of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead, and Tynemouth. 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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    49. That the Local Improvement Act for Newcastle, 1846, enacted that it should be lawful for the Town Council from time to time to make bye-laws for 9 & 10 Vict. laying down rules for cleansing filthy and unwholesome dwellings, and to c. cxxi. s. 109. ascertain and fix what pecuniary penalties should be incurred by persons breaking such laws; that towards the close of the next year, 1847, Dr. Robinson, honorary secretary to the Newcastle and Gateshead Sanitary Association, by a paper published in the Journal of Public Health, drew attention not only to the p. 279-280. existence of these powers, and of the evils for the suppression of which they might have been exercised, but also to the fact that they had been allowed to remain Avholly inoperative; that the Newcastle Medical Institutions and Sanitary Associations in their reports and at their public meetings, &c., heretofore alluded to, would seem to have frequently, all but,in terms, suggested the propriety of q. 875,1320, 1.339, enforcing this power ; and that the exercise of it would at all events have been q 6^97-^6700^6406-7' eminently desirable, and would no doubt signally have mitigated the ravages of 589-90,932-3,1127-8, the late epidemic; but that no such exercise or enforcement of it appears ever 2S oS?'^', to have taken place, and that no such rules or byelaws have ever been made. sios-i'i, 3189, 3202,' 50. That from the evidence of Superintending Inspector of Health Mr. Lee, as confirmed by the testimony of the parochial medical officer, Mr. Sang, it appears that at the time of the late outbreak hundreds of the newly built v. le. q. 2922-3. tenements, in one district of the township of Westgate alone, ough to have been immediately closed by the local authorities as unfit for human habitation; that within eleven weeks after the putting in force of a provision to that effect 15 & 17 Vict. in the Local Improvement Act of 1853, 102 tenements in Newcastle were shut c. clxxxii. s. 32. up as unfit for human habitation, while many more required and require so ^gy^ gg'^' to be; the chief limit to such a proceeding, apparently, being that suggested q. 1642-5 1872-3. by the fear of leading to a still greater overcrowding of the tenements not shut up. 51. That it has been suggested to us by the Corporation, that the power of the Local Act of 1846 was insufficient for the purpose in view; but that we not only have been unable to elicit in what respects it was so, but also have been q. 1159-6I, 1177- unable to discover that any serious attempt was ever made to take advantage 86, 6698-700, of it; to which we may add that the avowedly sufficient power of the 6863-.. Local Act of 1853, (passed the 4th August,) was never put in force until the day after the late outbreak had reached its climax (the 17th September), and then only at the instigation of the officers of the General Board of Health. Q. 1761-6. 52. That by an analogous clause of the same Local Act of 1846 it was enacted, that when it should appear to the Council conducive to the public health, and 9 8f 10 Vict. might tend to prevent or check infectious or contagious disease, it should be c. cxxi. s. 97. lawful for the Council from time to time, if they should think it expedient, to order the occupier of any dwelling house within the said borough, to whitc- wash, cleanse and purify the same in such manner and within such time as the Council might deem reasonable, with penalities for non-compliance, and with this provision superadded, that when on account of the poverty of such occupier or other special circumstances, it should appear expedient to the Council to pay the whole or any part of the expense of such whitewashing, &c it should be lawful for them to do so; that the sub-committee of the P. 276, liottom. Newcastle and Gateshead Sanitary Association for the west ward of All Saints, in their report, June 1847, recommended that the walls of the entries, as well as those of the houses situated in them, should be whitewashed at least twice a year, if not oftener, more especially in the lodging houses; but that this ^igs^^^lo power appears never to have been exercised and enforced, except under the 3203-6, 3216-9, 3742] pressure of developed epidemics, and to have been allowed to fall into disuse 3781-3,4175-80,4197- ■ J' . 1 nj. ^ ^ 8, 4843,4935-7, 4966, immediately after. 6972-5,7197-203. 53. That under the same Local Act of 1846, the Town Council further obtained power from time to time to make byelaws for making regulations for the 9 & 10 Vict. registering of lodging-houses, and for maintaining cleanliness therein, and ^- ® keeping them in a wholesome condition, and to ascertain and fix what pecuniary penalties should be incurred by persons breaking such laws ; that the first among the various suggestions submitted to the Town Council in 184/, ^- by the committee of the NcAVcastle and Gateshead Sanitary Association, appears to have been the immediate preparation and enforcement of byelaws for the regulation of lodging-houses ; and that at a later period of the same year the honorary secretary to that Association publicly drew attention to the fact, that 279-280.
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