[Report 1902] / Medical Officer of Health, Nottingham City.

  • Nottingham (England). City Council.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1902] / Medical Officer of Health, Nottingham City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    93/136 (page 89)
    Disinfecting Department.—There was again a slight decline in the aggregate number of articles disinfected at the two public stations—at the Eastcroft Depot and Bagthorpe Hospital respectively—as com¬ pared with the total of the previous year. This is explained by a corresponding reduction in the number of cases of those diseases for dealing with the infection of which our apparatus are employed. Articles Disinfected at the Public Stations in Nottingham, 1891-1902. 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 Bedding .. 5357 6735 8521 2943 10990 8822 4483 7550 22385 14582 12758 13002 Clothing .. 4741 10253 11266 20579 12652 9012 4768 5554 14605 10517 9403 3785 Furniture ] & Hngngs.j 401 439 726 1541 1277 2184 1382 2130 2722 2397 3257 4455 Miscells. ) Articlesj 8586 13319 10573 10303 13272 8394 8341 7699 14093 9498 9410 11498 Total .. 19085 j30746 31086 35366 38191 28392 18974 22933 53805 36994 34828 32740 In my last annual Deport I drew attention to the fact that many articles (such as blankets and cloth clothes), for the thorough disinfection of which steam or boiling water are practically the only agents at once available and effectual, are almost necessarily damaged by either. I regret to say that during the past year we have again received many complaints of damage to such articles through disinfection by steam. I therefore feel constrained to repeat this warning, and to add that such unavoidable damage must be regarded as part of the penalty of infection. When dealing—as we now are—with the virus of diseases like enteric fever, diphtheria, and small-pox, we feel that no trifling is admissible; we must do our work thoroughly if it is to be effectual, and such incidental damage is a small price to pay for escape, when this is secured, from an extension of maladies like these. The work of this Department is superintended by Mr. F. G. Williams, the principal infectious diseases Inspector.