Report on the sanitary condition of Malta and Gozo with reference to the epidemic cholera in 1865 / by Dr. Sutherland.
- John Sutherland
- Date:
- 1867
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report on the sanitary condition of Malta and Gozo with reference to the epidemic cholera in 1865 / by Dr. Sutherland. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![to time. The inspecting oflicers might also give such instructions to the officers of pohce as would enable them to do certain inspecting duties with more or less efficiency. All arrangements respecting the service would of course have to be considered and decided on the spot, and it would be advisable to consolidate and place under one authority all ordinances^ rules, &c. having reference to public health questions, such as vaccination, inspection of food, drink, and such like. The following is an outline of the sanitary v/orks and measures required for the towns within the garrison :— 1. Most of the streets within the garrison are sewered in the manner already described ; that is, the servers are constructed of porous material, without reference to sectional area or inclination ; they have no necessary connexion with water suppl}^, and the outlets are all more or less olFensive and dangerous to health. In the Ileport of the Sanitary Condition of the Mediterranean Stations general principles for iaiproving the sewerage were laid down. It was there shown that impervious glazed pipe sewers of suitable sections, and carefully laid, should be substituted for the present large porous conduits; that all street and court gratings should be trapped; that the whole system of outlets required to be re-arranged, so as to keep the sewage out of the harbours ; and that special arrangements for flushing out and ventilating the main lines of sewers were required. Experience derived from the late epidemic has confirmed the necessity for the adoption of such measures, and I have therefore to recommend that a survey be made of the cities and that a plan for improving the sewerage on these ])rinciple3 be drawn up for consideration. Taking into account the value of manure in the island, I would further suggest whether the whole or part of the sewage of the cities might not be advantageously applied by in igation for agricultural purposes. But in such a climate, and with so thin a covering of soil over the porous rock beneath, care would have to be exercised in selecting localities and in applying the sewerage so as not to injure the public health. A trial of it might very v\'ell be made in the first instance on a limited scale. It would be quite worth while to do this, because of the great pecuniary gain which would accrue to the island if the sewage could be utilized in such a way. 2. The water supply requires to be increased, and the existing system of distribution must be completely changed. So long as underground tanks below surfaces of courts and floors of houses are allowed to exist, there can be no security either against damp or against the use of foul water for domestic purposes. There is no reason why the most recent improvements in water distribution should not be applied to every house within the garrison. Looking at the question simply from the side of the public health, I consider this improvement to be imperatively required. 3. The intensit}'' of cholera has been so obviously connected with a bad state of house drainage and want of suitable domestic conveniences, that an entire reconstruction of house drainage is absolutely necessary. After water has been laid on to the houses, and the sewerage has been remodelled, every house should be provided with earthenware soilpans, supplied with water and trapped. The ordinary Maltese latrine which people have been in the habit of using is in some sense an approximation to a healthy domestic arrangement, and there would be no difficulty in substituting a proper soilpan for it. It need scarcely be said that the sinks at present in use for such purposes in many houses, whether in courts or on landings, should be destroyed. The proposed soilpans should be connected w^ith street sewers by glazed earthenware pipes carefully laid, with imper- vious joints. 4. Every court should be paved in hard stone with as few joints as possible, and the sur- face drainage should be conducted by an impervious pipe drain from a small trapped gulley in the court to the main sewer. All street gulley grates should be carefully trapped. 5. A strict supervision is required over the sanitary police of courts and lodging houses. Dung rooms and all such contrivances ought to be forthwith abolished. The dry refuse of every house should be removed every day. It should never be lost sight of that every hour of delay in cleansing houses such as are many of those in the cities and villages is an hour of danger to health, especially if epidemics are in the air. House refuse should not be thrown down anywhere in these close confined localities. Carts for removing it should be sent round once every day at the least, and the refuse collected in moveable dust bins or boxes should be carried out and thrown at once into the cart. 6. House cleansing, scraping, limewashing of walls, ceilings, and the like, requires far more attention than has been bestowed upon it. During my inspection of houses where there had been deaths from cholera in the cities I scarcely saw a room which was clean. If cholera were to return, it would find its former habitats ready to receive it.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24749655_0046.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
