BOARD OF HEALTH.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2094, 9 November 1880, Page 3

BOARD OF HEALTH.

The Local Board of Health met yesterday, after tho Drainage Board. Present —Mr Harman (in the chair), Messrs Hobbs, Blakiston. Brown, Hall, Cuff and Tanorod. Mr Brown asked whether there was any truth iu the published statement that the Board’s representatives at the late enquiry had delegated their powers to Dr. Nedwill to conduct the enquiry. The minute on the subject was read, which simply said a deputation was appointed to wait on Dr. Skae, but no mention was made about representing the Board at the enquiry. The report of the medical officer was read as follows : November 6th, 1880. The Chairman, Board of Health. Sir, —X have the honor to report on tho health of the district for the quarter ending September 30th. The following are the number of householders who reported the existence of infectious diseases during the above time: —Typhoid fever, 16 ; diphtheria, 12; scarlet fever, 14. In several instances more than one member of the same family was ill, and doubtless some cases were not reported. The oases have been distributed thus :—Christchurch —Typhoid fever _B, diphtheria 4. scarlet fever 4. Sydenham—Diphtheria 5, scarlet fever 6. Avon—Typhoid fever 4, scarlet fever 2. Heathoote—Typhoid fever 4, diphtheria 2, scarlet fever 2. Eiccarton —Diphtheria 1. And according to the months :—July —Typhoid fever 3, diphtheria 7, scarlet fever 2.

August—Typhoid fever 7, diphtheria 3, scar-et fever 8. September—Typhoid fever 6, diphtheria 2, scarlet fever 4. The numbers reported for the corresponding three months of 1879 were: —July—Diphtheria 3, scarlet fever 1. August Typhoid fever 1, diphtheria -3 September—Typhoid fever 3, dipththeria 4. This increase in the numbers reported can scarcely bo ascribed to a more unhealthy season. Probably the real reason is that better attention is now given to reporting. The mortality within the city was per 1000 of the population monthly: —July, 1.39; Aucnst. 119; September, 1.25. And for the corresponding months of 1879: — July, 1.76; August, 2.33; September, 1.20 The mortality in Sydenham for last quarter was: —July, 1.80; August, 1.54; September, 0.76. Hitherto in the reports submitted to this Board the death rate under five years of age and that above five and the birth rate have not been . specified. The birth rate for the fifteen principal towns in New Zealand for the last twelve months has been ve'y high—over 45 per 10C0 of the population. In Christchurch it has been over 43. In England and Wales, according to the “ Journal of the Statistical Society,” London, 1877, the birth rate was 34.9. Judging from the vital statistics of the colony, the death rate under five years of age is also very high, but how much higher than in hngland I am at present unable to say with anything approaching accuracy. Of the deaths that occur under five years a large proportion of them takes place under one year of age, and of the different diseases which claim victims in the latter age those classed as diarrhoeal greatly predominate. It is said that the rate of infantile deaths is a true test of the sanitary state of any district, and as the time is now approaching when the diarrhoeal diseases mostly occur, I wish to direct public attention to the conditions under which they are developed, and the means by which they may be checked- Whilst it may be laid down as a rule that the younger the infant is the more susceptible it is of diarrhoea, yet high tempe.ature exercises such an influence in bringing it on that the name of “summer diarrhoea ” has become a common term for this complaint. Urban life is so favorable to its development that this disease may be said to be confined principally to towns, and it is seen in its very worst form where there is overcrowding in poor localities, and whore filth and fonlness are rampant. But of all the causes which tend to deyelop this disease, improper and unsuitable food has the most to answer for, and just in proportion as infanta are breast nursed or hand nursed, is the probability that they will escape the disease or take it. In the “Beport on the Protection of Infant Life,” 1871, drawn up by the Commission appointed by the House of Commons to investigate the causes of undue mortality among infants, it is stated "that the ordinary mortality among infant children under one year of age is estimated at 15 or 16 per oent.; bnt the mere fact of their being hand nursed, instead of being breast nursed, will, unless great care is taken, raise the death rate, even in wellcondncted houses, to 40 per cent, and upwards.” There is no substitute for breast milk so good as fresh milk from a caw, and in the majority of cases where it is found to disagree, an investigation will often discover that some change towards putrefaction has taken place between the time when it was drawn and when it was administered. In the houses of the unclean and the untidy, milk exposed for a short time will quickly absorb the exhalations which are always present ia such places, and even ferment. It is this proneness of milk to decomposition which renders it so necessary, when infants are hand nursed, that the vessels containing it should be thoroughly clean, and that it is not exposed to emanations of any kind. A series of experiments, instituted by a celebrated German, with the view of finding out the degrees of potresoibility of different articles of infant food, proved that, although woman’s and cow’s milk were very prone to decomposition, Swiss milk and farinaceous foods were more so. “ The pre eminence of human milk is acknowledged; then comes cow’s milk, and then Swiss milk; and only at a far distance the farinaceous foods—not as substitutes, but as mere supplementary substances, which are rendered less mischievous by the addition of milk.” Diarrhoea and the allied diseases, including typhoid fever, are unquestionably induced by filth, whether absorbed by the longs as vapor or received into the stomach as food which is undergoing decomposition brought about by exposure to this vapor. Under either circumstance filth is the cause, and to its removal wo must look for improvement in our health rates. In the more populous parts of the district house refuse should be taken away with regularity and at short intervals during the summer. In the city itself the time of one man would be fully occupied in carrying on the work of inspection. I have on several occasions drawn the attention of the Board to the pernicious habit of filling in hollows and excavations in the neighborhood of houses with refuse and general city rubbish, and I would again urge upon the Board to prohibit snch practices. I would recommend the Board to follow np its representation to the Government on the subject of having dairies licensed and inspected, by asking the central Board of Health to write to the President of the Local Government Board of England for all English enactments on the control and management of dairies.—l have, &c , Coubtnkt Nedwill, M.D., Medical Officer, With regard to the information proposed to he obtained from England, the Chairman said it would perhaps bo advisable to ascertain whether it could be got in the colony, and undertook to inquire.