Report of the Medical Officer of Health on the operations of the Liverpool Sanitary Amendment Act, 1864.

  • Liverpool (England). Medical Officer of Health.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health on the operations of the Liverpool Sanitary Amendment Act, 1864. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    KEPOET The Medical Officer of Health has the honour to submit, for the considera- tion of the Committee, the following observations on the Act 27 and 28 Vic- toria, entitled “An act for making further provision with respect to the sanitary condition of the Borough of Liverpool, and for other purposes.** The preamble of the bill recites the provisions of acts now in force for sur- veying and remedying the condition of dangerous buildings, and for appointing a Medical Officer of Health. It then states, that there are in the borough a great number of houses situated in, or abutting upon, or contiguous to, or at the entrance of courts and alleys, which houses, by reason of defects in the construction thereof, or the want of ventilation or proper conveniences, or from other causes, are unfit for human habitation ; and fevers and other diseases are constantly generated there, causing death and loss of health, not only in the courts and alleys, but also in other parts of the borough ; and it is expedient that provision be made for the remedy thereof, and also that further provision be made for the regulation of courts and alleys in the borough, and of the houses and buildings erected therein. • Upon the facts contained in this preamble are based the enactments of the bill; but before analysing them it will be convenient to state more fully the nature and extent of the structural and sanitary evils to be remedied. There are in the Borough of Liverpool 3173 courts, of which only 542 have an entrance width of ten feet or more; and if these be substracted from the total, it will leave an enormous number of courts as coming, at least partially, within the meaning of the description in the preamble of the act, because of some radical defect in their construction impeding proper ventilation, and favoring thereby the generation and extension of disease. It is impossible to classify with strict accuracy all these unhealthy courts, since many have defects peculiar to themselves; but the following arrangement will be found to embody, under notable characteristics, the greater proportion of them. It will assist, to group together under distinct heads an otherwise perplexing mass of facts, and