Report of Dr. L.W. Darra Mair to the Local Government Board upon the sanitary circumstances and administration of the urban district of Gainsborough, with special reference to the prevalence of fever therein / [L.W. Darra Mair].

  • Mair, L. W. Darra (Ludovic William Darra), 1866-1912.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of Dr. L.W. Darra Mair to the Local Government Board upon the sanitary circumstances and administration of the urban district of Gainsborough, with special reference to the prevalence of fever therein / [L.W. Darra Mair]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    OFFICIAL COPY. Report of Dr. L. W. Darra Mair to the Local Government Board upon the Sanitary Circumstances and Administra¬ tion of the Urban District of Gainsborough, with special reference to the prevalence of Fever therein. Richd- Thorne Thorne, Medical Officer, June 14th, 1899. The Board having observed, from the Returns of the Registrar-General for the quarter ended the 31st of March, 1898, that 5 deaths from “fever” (presumably enteric fever), had been registered in the Gainsborough Urban District, entered into correspondence with the District Council with a view of obtaining information as to the character of the fever prevalence and as to the steps taken to investigate its origin and to stay its spread. Having failed to secure the information thus sought (the special report of the Medical Officer of Health dealt only with scarlatina, which had caused one death during the period named), and having in mind the unsatisfactory administra¬ tion of the district and its insanitary condition when visited by Dr. Fletcher in connection with the Cholera Survev in 1894, the Board deemed it advisable to direct local inquiry to be made by one of their medical inspectors. I was instructed to make the necessary inquiry, and for that purpose visited the district on several occasions in September and October. General Description. The Urban District of Gainsborough covers an area of 2,118 acres, and is situated on the right or, in this locality, the eastern bank of the River Trent, about 20 miles from its junction with the Humber. The greater portion of the district is of a rural character and is considerably elevated, but the populated portion—the town of Gainsborough—is situated in the valley of the river, and is almost entirely confined to a low-lying area of about MO acres, bounded to the west by the river and to the east by the Great Central Railway. The river, which is tidal, forms here the boundary between the counties of Lincolnshire, to which Gainsborough belongs, and of Nottinghamshire. “ It is swept at spring tides by a bore, locally known as the ‘Eygre’; the inflowing water, rising to a considerable height and advancing like a wall, rushes with a loud noise swiftly up the bed of the river, sweeping all before it that has not been properly secured, and scouring up the mud in the channel and on the banks, increasing in this way the usual turbidity of the water.”* The tide is said to flow for two hours and to ebb for ten in every twelve hours. Geologically, the district is on the New Red or Keuper Marl, overlyfing, at over 700 feet, the New Red Sandstone. In the town the marl is covered with alluvium of varying depth. * Dr. Bruce Low’s report to the Local Government Board on the River Trent : 1893. LONDON: PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE, By DARLING & SON, Ltd., 1-3, Great St. Thomas Apostle, E.C. And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C.; or JOHN MENZIES & Co., 12, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, and 90, West Nile Street, Glasgow ; or HODGES, FIGGIS & Co., Limited, 104, Grafton Street, Dublin. 1899. Price Sixpence. No. 139. hi WELLCOME LIBRARY General Collections I 1102—375—11/98 Wt 18267 D & S 19 +P