[Report 1897] / Medical Officer of Health, Swinton & Pendlebury Borough.

  • Swinton and Pendlebury (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1897] / Medical Officer of Health, Swinton & Pendlebury Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    persistently indifferent both to its own and its neighbours’ health by neglect of such means of cleanliness as are at least within reach. On the other hand it must be said that not a few owners of cottage property in these localities take a somewhat limited view of their duties and responsibilities in the matter, and that the Council is fully alive to this point is shown, not only by the frequent discus¬ sions which have taken place during the year, but also by their taking action to compel certain owners to act up to those duties and responsibilities. Further, I would remind the Council that on its part much yet remains to be done, e.g., a proper system of ventilation of the sewers, the renovation and more careful and frequent cleansing of the ashpits (more especially in parts of the district where these outbreaks are so liable to recur), and the paving of streets, back yards, and back passages. With regard to the first point I think the system in vogue in the neighbouring township of Clifton would be equally suitable for Pendlebury, and the proposal to utilise the mill chimneys for this purpose is one, I think, which may prove of practical value throughout the district. There are some instances in which untrapped grids, intended for surface water only, are placed a few feet only from the front doors of dwellings, and the result of these acting as sewer ventilators has no doubt been the cause of some of our typhoid cases. A large number of these have now been remedied. All these matters have, as I am aware, engaged your anxious attention, and will, I have no doubt, in due course be remedied. I trust they will be pushed on without unnecessary delay, because just at the beginning of the present year, 1898, we are in the presence of another some¬ what serious outbreak of typhoid in one of the streets (George Street) closely adjoining the district to which I have referred in con ection with the East.Ward of Pendlebury. The general death-rate from Diseases of the Lungs (including Bronchitis, Pneumonia and Pleurisy, but excluding Phthisis) was 3*81 per 1,000 living; including Phthisis it was 4*70; these figures being about the same as, though slightly lower than, in 1896.