HH62/1/BANFF/13

Transcription

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drinking of polluted water must affect injuriously the lower
animals as well as human beings, more especially if such water
be specifically infected. Of recent years it has been affirmed,
and is quite possible, that cattle suffer from Scarlet Fever,
Typhoid Fever, and perhaps Diphtheria, and that cows so
affected may communicate these diseases to human beings
through the milk. That the milk of tuberculous cows containing
tubercli bacilli is capable of transmitting the disease to other
aminals has been well established.

(c) Causes, Origin, and Distribution of Disease.

I do not feel myself in a position to speak with any certainty
on those points. The only means of information at my disposal
are the Registers of Deaths in the various districts. The
Registrars have kindly furnished me with particulars (age,
cause, &c.) of those deaths which have occurred within the
county during the past year. These are set forth in detail in
the tables appended to the District Reports, but such data for
one year are insufficient to draw any conclusion from. It would
be necessary before doing so to have specific information extend-
ing over a series of years - and this unfortunately we cannot get,
so far as the existence of sickness is concerned. I trust in the
course of the present year to be able to make some inquiry into
the incidence and fatality of different diseases in certain districts
during the past few years, and their persistence there.
In Table III., p. 17, I have set forth the number of cases of
those diseases now classed as infectious and communicable (i.e.,
preventible) which have proved fatal during 1891.

(d) Prevention of the Spread of Infectious Disease
- Hospital Accommodation, &c.

In the district reports, mention has been already made of
the measures taken to prevent the spread of infectious disease,
and these need not here be repeated in detail.
The adoption of the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act by
the District Councils has been of great service, though the carry-
ing of it out has thrown a good deal of extra work upon the
Sanitary Inspector. Through it we have been informed of the
existence of infectious disease in certain localities, and by inquiry,
in some cases of its existence there in previous years.
In the Report for the Banff District (p. 6), I mention that I
had been struck by the condition of two or three of the coast
villages, and that the opinion I then formed had been borne out,
partly by the operation of the Infectious Disease (Notification)
Act, and partly by the returns received by the Registrars.
Reference was made to the village of Whitehills, where Typhoid

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Fever, Erysipelas, and Diphtheria seem, I might say, to be endemic.
The mortality, however, from these diseases has been almost nil,
a proof of a previous statement that the death rate is no sure
criterion of the existence of disease or of the health of a com-
munity. Most of the Typhoid Fever and Diphtheria patients have
been children, amongst whom the mortality from the former
disease is usually small. I suspect the absence of adult patients
is due to most of the native inhabitants of Whitehills having an
attack of Typhoid Fever in their youth, because, from what I can
learn, the disease has been more or less prevalent there for many
years. Another village to which my attention was directed is
Gardenstown, in Gamrie parish. The Registrar's Returns for
Gamrie show that during last year in that village, Typhoid Fever,
Puerperal Fever, Whooping Cough, and Diarrhoea, caused each
two deaths. Since the Notification Act came into force only one
case of Erysipelas has been notified from the village.
Of recent years, the connection between contaminated milk
supply and the spread of infectious disease has been so often
brought to public notice that I need here only mention the fact,
as my reason for advising the enforcing of the Dairies, Cowsheds,
and Milkshops Order of 1885-6. As yet, no Inspector of Dairies
has been appointed in the County of Banff; but I hope such an
appointment may be made at an early date in order that this
most important matter - the milk supply - may be carefully
looked after, and every possible precaution taken against its
becoming a source of disease.
In Table IV., p. 17, the information acquired through the
Notification Act with the number and nature of the cases notified
from each district is given.
In the District Reports an account of the Hospitals avail-
able in each District for the reception of cases of infectious
diseases, along with a detailed account of the accommodation of
each, has been given, and need not be repeated here.
In the report for the Banff District, attention has been
drawn to the fact that the Western part of that District, includ-
ing the populous Parish of Rathven and the Registration Dis-
tricts of Enzie and Seafield, and comprising the Burghs of Buckie
and Cullen, with the Villages of Portgordon, Portessie, Findochty,
Portknockie, &c., is entirely without Hospital accommodation for
the isolation and treatment of infectious disease. This is the
most densely populated part of the County, and during the
herring fishing season the population must be largely increased
by immigration. Besides, the intercommunication with other
ports, both home and foreign, is very extensive. Under these
circumstances, I trust that action may be taken by the District
Council in conjunction with the Local Authorities of Buckie and
Cullen to provide adequate Hospital accommodation for the Dis-
trict.