HH62/45/261

Transcription

[Note] 260

Highland District.

The population of the Highland District estimated to the middle of 1895 was 12,651.
During the year there were registered 266 Births and 245 Deaths, giving a Birth-rate
of 21.02 and a Death-rate of 19.36, as compared with a Birth-rate of 19.57 and a
Death-rate of 14.40 in 1894. The Natural Increase of the population in 1895 was
21, as compared with 66 in 1894.
Of the 245 Deaths, 139, or 56.7 per cent., occurred in persons over 60 years of
age, and 17 in children under 1 year, giving an Infant Mortality of 63.9 against 44.0
in 1894.
The improvement in the sanitary condition of the Highland District has been
steady during the past year, and although the Death-rate under All Causes is larger,
that can be accounted for by the increased number of Deaths from Respiratory,
Circulatory, and Nervous Diseases in persons over 60 years of age, and when the
Zymotic Death-rate and the Infant Mortality, as well as the absence of any excess in
the number of cases of Diphtheria and Enteric Fever, are taken into account, the
District must be considered to be in a healthy condition. The work done during the
year by the Public Health Department has been chiefly of a routine character.
Special attention has also been directed to the improvement of the sanitary condition
of some of the outlying Schools, the prevention of pollution of the River Tay by
the sewage of Aberfeldy and of Murthly Asylum, as well as the selection of a good
site for the new Burying-Ground at Moulin. At Murthly Asylum a very complete
system of treating the sewage by irrigation has been decided on, and the necessary
works commenced. The scavenging of the villages of Pitlochry and Dunkeld was
under the consideration of the District Committee, and both places have now been
declared Special Cleansing Areas, but it is too early to speak of how the work will
be carried out under the new arrangement. One thing is certain, that it is now a much
more serious matter to start one of those Districts than under the old Public Health
Act, when the whole arrangements were in the hands of the Sanitary Inspector, and
the work cannot be done more efficiently under the new regime. The drainage of
Pitlochry received considerable attention, as it was found that the alterations carried
out last year had not the desired effect of preventing the houses in the lower portion
of the village from being flooded with sewer water during the heavy rains; it has now
been decided to duplicate the lower portion of the sewer, and when this has been done
there is little doubt of the cause of the complaint being removed. It has been found
that the sewage irrigation fields in connection with the outfall of the Pitlochry
Drainage were inadequate to properly purify the effluent before its discharge into the
Tummel, and it has been decided to obtain more land for irrigation purposes.
The completion of the West Highland Railway, and, as a consequence, the
removal from the District of the large body of navvies engaged in its construction,
has much lessened the anxiety experienced during former years lest Smallpox should
occur in such an inaccessible part of the country as the Moor of Rannoch.
2. General enquiries have been made to ascertain the sanitary condition of the
District, and many special investigations have been necessary in dealing with outbreaks

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