BOARD OF HEALTH.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1851, 28 January 1880, Page 3

BOARD OF HEALTH.

The Local Board of Health for Christchurch district met shortly after four o’clock on Monday afternoon. Present —The chairman (Mr Harman), and Messrs Duncan, Blakiston, Hall, and Tancred. Dr. Nedwill, health officer, was also in attendance. The following report from the health officer was put before the meeting : Christchurch, January 21th, 1880. Sir —I have the honor to report on the health of the Christchurch Drainage District for the quarter ending December 31st, 1879 The following are the number of householders who reported the existence of infectious diseases for the three months : JT3 43 t ’o u 55 g- I 1.-S § £ g cefM Christchurch ... 6 0 2 Sydenham ... ... 0 1 1 Avon 22 0 Heathcoto ... ... 0 0 4 Eiccarten .. ... 0 0 0 Spreydon 0 0 0 8 3 7 There were twenty-nine cases of infectious diseases reported for the corresponding quarter of 1878, viz.—Typhoid, 15; diphtheria, 6; scarlet fever, 8. The mortality from all causes within the city for the three months ending December Slat, 1879, was per 1000 of the population monthly— October, 120; November, 106; December, IT9 ; and, for the corresponding three months of 1878 —October, T 01; November, 0 97 ; December, 2 01. As there were only eight cases of typhoid fever, throe of diphtheria, and seven of scarlet fever reported during the last quarter, I thought it advisable to get the District Registrar to allow me to look over his books, and the result of this inspection obliges me to draw the attention of the Board to the neglect on the part of householders to report infections diseases. Three deaths from typhoid fever having been registered in the last quarter, of which the Board has had no knowledge, it seems only reasonable to suppose that the Board must have been kept in ignorance of a'great many cases which have recovered. In my report to the Board of November 22nd, 1879, I complained of the dilatoriness displayed in acquainting the Board of these infectious diseases, and I mentioned a case where death had occurred before I had had an opportunity of inspecting the house. On January 3rd, 1 received notice of a case of diphtheria at a house in a populous neighborhood, and, although I paid my visit on the morning of the same day, I found on my arrival that the patient had been dead nearly twelve hours. Two other children, then convalescent, in the same house had been ill three weeks previously from the same complaint, but no precaution seemed to have been adopted to prevent the spread of the disease. My notes taken at the time are—“ Premises very dirty; house slops and kitchen refuse discharged in a heap close to the door ; yard or garden covered over with rubbish of all kinds ; no pan, stinking, filthy cesspit overflowing.” This was just the place for the Board a officers to visit and promptly abate the nuisance, but they did not get an opportunity until the disease had had a month’s start. I trust the Board will use its power to prevent the neglect which I have described, as it very materially interferes with the usefulness of your health officer. It is absolutely necessary to gain the co-opera-tion of the resident medical practitioners in this matter, and, with this object, I forward you an extract from an annotation in the ‘‘ Lancet ” of November Bth, 1879, the importance of which I trust the Board will earnestly consider. I would suggest the advisabienets of asking the Registrar-General to cause a weekly return

of the deaths from zymotic diseases occurring within the district, to be forwarded from the District Registrar to the Board. A case of diphtheria was reported to your Board from the North-East Belt, and on my visiting the house I was informed that no medical man had been in attendance. The owner of the house had evidently hit upon this plan with the object of getting the Health Officer to report unfavourably of adjoining premises. The child reported as ill had not been laid up, and the housekeeper was not aware that it had diphtheria. Only two cases of infections disease (diphtheria) have been reported from Jackson’s Creek since I officially visited it, and it is worthy of remark that they occurred in one of the houses which still discharges slops into the creek, notwithstanding that it is now quite drv. It is a thing to be deplored that so few householders n the community have adopted the simple, cleanly, inexpensive, and sanitary method of using dry earth in their closets. The advice of your late health officer with regard to compelling the owners of hotels and publichouses to use earth, should not be lost sight of now that the period is approaching when typhoid fever is most prevalent. I would strongly urge upon the Board, now the butchers themselves are advocating it, that they use their influence in getting public abbatoirs established for Christchurch. From what I have seen of the slaughterhouses and yards around the city, I am convinced that it is next to impossible to keep them from being public nuisances, and many of them are in such a state that they must be seriously affecting the health of the district.

I have visited the excavations on Brightlmg’s land on the Gasworks road on this aide of Wilson’s bridge. I think the practice of merely burying large quantities of decaying vegetable and animal matter in a place which is surrounded by dwelling-houses is bad, and ought to be abandoned. In any case the holes should be filled up with earth with as little delay as possible. so as to prevent water from collecting and remaining stagnant there. It will be necessary for the Board to instruct the Inspector to see that no rotten leaky pans are used in the closets of the district, and that the scavenger be more attentive in cleansing and drying the pans after emptying them. I think that masters of public and private schools should, on the absence of any child through illness, require a certificate that it is not suffering from an infectious disease before allowing other members of the family to mix in the school. The carelessness of parents in sending their children from home, knowing that intentions disease is amongst them, cannot be too strongly condemned. With reference to a letter sent to the Board, complaining of an outbreak of typhoid fever at Ferrymead, I have to inform you that T have been requested by the Heathcote Road Board to report on the subject and advise them. I might state that lately, on several occasions, I have been to the Heathcote River, near the Estuary, and have not noticed anything very objectionable.

I hare, &c., C. Nedwxll, M.D., Health Officer. The following is a copy of the article referred to in the above report : “ The Norwich Improvement Act —a private measure, passed during the last session of Parliament—has just come into force, and the working of one of its most important clauses has great interest for the medical profession. By this clause it is enacted ‘ That notice be given to the Corporation of any inmate of any building used for human habitation in the city, who is suffering from smallpox, cholera, typhus, typhoid, scarlet fever, diphtheria, or relapsing fever, or any other disease which the corporation may from time to time, with the sanction of the local Government Board, by resolution of the Council specify. For this purpose the corporation has distributed to each registered medical practitioner, resident or practising in the city, blank forms, one of which he has to fill up and give to the occupier or person having the management of the building, to be forwarded by him to the corporation. This certificate states the name, residence, and disease of the patient, and the name of the occupier or other person having the management or control of the building in which the patient is. If no practitioner be in attendance it is the duty of the occupier to noiify the fact to the corporation ; any person offending against this enactment renders himself liable to a penalty not exceeding .£5, and the corporation pays a fee of 2s fid to the medical practitioner for each certificate duly given, provided that not more than three become payable to the same practitioner within thirty days for certificates in respect of the same disease in the same building. We need hardly state that we quite approve of the efforts thus made to become thoroughly acquainted with the existence and spread of contagious diseases.” Some discussion followed on the report being read, the general opinion being favorable to the suggestions made by Dr. Nedwill. The Board ultimately passed the following resolutions : “The Registrar-General to be asked to cause a weekly return of the deaths from zymotic diseases occurring in the district, to be supplied by the District Registrar weekly to the Board.”

“ The co-operation of the members of the medical profession with the Board to be sought with reference to the question of reporting infectious diseases.” “ The Board of Education to be requested' to instruct the masters in their employment to inquire into the case of illness of any pupil, whether he be suffering from an infectious disease, and to reportany case of infectious disease occurring amongst their pupils to the Local Board of Health, and to require a medical certificate that the child when convalescent could attend without danger to the other pupils before readmitting the child.” “ The chairman to forward an extract from the late Dr. Powell’s report with reference to earth closets to the Licensing Bench, and to suggest the advisability of their general adoption; the Inspector to see that all pans in use are in a sound condition.” Some correspondence was considered and dealt with. The infectious diseases reported during the fortnight were typhoid five cases, scarlet fever two eases. Some accounts were passed for payment, and the Board adjourned.