Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the general sanitary circumstances and administration of the rural sanitary district of Dartford, and on an outbreak of diphtheria in the parish of Swanscombe.

  • Thorne, R. Thorne (Richard Thorne), Sir, 1841-1899.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the general sanitary circumstances and administration of the rural sanitary district of Dartford, and on an outbreak of diphtheria in the parish of Swanscombe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    S>s RECOMMENDATIONS. 1. The Sanitary Authority should without delay take the necessary steps for pro- viding a proper water-supply for all portions of their district not having such a supply. With this object in view detailed inquiry should, in the first instance, be made as to the existing supplies, and, where necessary, remedial measures should be adopted, by action under section 70 of the Public Health Act, 1875, and under section 3 of the Public Health (Water) Act, 1878. In localities through which the mains of the Kent Water Company already pass, the Authority should avail themselves of the exceptional facilities which the district possesses for dealing with this matter. 2. The question of the efficient sewerage and drainage of those portions of the rural district standing in need of such provision should receive the early and serious consideration of the Sanitary Authority. With regard to the more populous portions of those parishes which are within the drainage areas of either the West Kent or the Darenth Valley system of sewerage, the Sanitary Authority should come to a decision as to the use of those systems for the purposes of their district. And as to places for which the Sanitary Authority either cannot, or do not propose to, utilize these systems, skilled advice should be sought as to the best means of making the provision required. The various portions of Swanscombe parish especially call for early action in this matter. 3. Steps should be taken to do away with all sources of nuisance or of injury to health arising from the present condition of house drains, whether these are due to the proximity of cesspools to houses or to the direct communication existing between the interior of houses and cesspools, drains, or closets, or to other causes. 4. The Authority should without delay take into consideration the necessity of making such provision for dealing with the excrement and refuse of the population as shall be free from nuisance and the risk of danger to health. If waterclosets are con- structed they should in every case be provided with adequate means of flushing. In the case of dry-ash-closets, the pit, which should be constructed at a level of six inches above the surrounding soil, should be limited to the space beneath the seat, and facilities should be afforded, as by the provision of a seat rising on hinges, for the frequent and effectual application of the ashes to the excreta. Both with regard to these and other forms of closets more complete information may be obtained from the Report of the Local Government Board on “ Certain Means of Preventing Excrement Nuisances in Towns and Villages.” In the more populous parts of the district the Authority should itself undertake the removal of all house refuse, and except where waterclosets may be in use, of all closet contents. 5. It is important that the Authority should, with a view to the efficient adoption of the preceding recommendations, make application to the Local Government Board for such urban powers as will enable them to make byelaws, for the more populous parts of the rural sanitary district, relating to matters dealt with under sections 44, 157, & 158 of the Public Health Act, 1875. 6. The Inspectors of Nuisances should be required to make, under the supervision of the Medical Officers of Health, a house-to-house inspection of their respective districts. This would necessarily be a work of some considerable length, but if it is carefully carried out, and the recorded results regularly brought under the notice of the Sanitary Authority, it will afford them such detailed knowledge of the sanitary circumstances of the district as will materially facilitate their action in dealing with its numerous sanitary defects. 7. It would doubtless materially contribute to the sanitary administration of the dis- trict if the meetings of the Sanitary Authority were held at stated and more frequent intervals, and if the advice of the Medical Officers of Health could be regularly procured as to the action which the Authority propose to take in matters concerning health.