[Report 1898] / Medical Officer of Health, Keighley Borough.

  • Keighley (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1898] / Medical Officer of Health, Keighley Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/54 (page 5)
    with regard to its action on lead, with negative results. The daily addition of lime completely neutralises the acid derived from the peat, and consequently prevents its natural plumbo-solvent action. Sewerage and Sewage Disposal.—Considerable progress has been made in this department, especially in the two districts mentioned in last year’s Report. Over 900 yards of east iron pipe sewer has been laid up the North Beck, and numerous conhections made thereto. Ebenezer Square has been effeciently drained, and notices have been issued to alter the abominable privy middens to water closets or slop water closets. The paving of the Square will also be proceeded with as soon as ever the ground has sufficiently settled. East year I remarked that the middens and old stone drains, which constituted a serious danger to health in Kbenezer Square, also existed in Damside and Westgate, and that a similar remedy was required. This of course, means a serious outlay on the part of property owners, but no half measures should be tolerated if the slum property in this neighbourhood is to be rendered fit for human habitation. The Borough Engineer reports that 400 lineal yards of sewering has been laid by the Highways Committee, as well as 910 yards of cast iron pipe sewer up the North Beck. 1,220 lineal yards of new streets have also been paved. Your appointment of a Drain Inspector is calculated to do much good. You have decided that the drains of all new buildings should be tested with water, and all inside water closets with the smoke test before being passed as satisfactory, and this is being done before new dwellings are certified as fit for habitation. Keighley and Bingley Joint Hospital.—During the year just ended 240 patients were admitted for treatment, almost double the number admitted during 1897. When the hospital was opened in February, 1897, only two pavilions were available for the reception of patients (Scarlet Fever and Typhoid) and it soon became evident that an additional pavilion was indispensable if Diphtheria cases were to be isolated. This addition was ready for use none too soon. It was not open many days before it was filled with sufferers from the Diphtheria epidemic then raging in the Holycroft district of the Borough.