HH62/1/DUNBAR/37

Transcription

[Page] 36

refuse matter." Failure to comply with such notice involves
liability to a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings per day.
The continual suing for penalties is most objectionable, but the
fact of the Local Authority having the power to enforce them
would probably have a good effect even if the power were not
often exercised. There is no doubt that the accumulations of
rotting filth that fester in sun and rain in the back yards of nearly
all the houses in an ordinary village have a most deleterious
influence on the public health, and especially on the health of
children. They are very apt to be a cause of the spread of such
diseases such as diarrhoea and enteric fever, and probably also of
diphtheria.
If the following resolution, which has been unanimously adopted
by the County Council, were given effect to by parliament, such
difficulties as those just discussed would be largely got rid of, as
would also those dependent on the want of building regulations,
and referred to at p. 38 of this Report:-
"That the Secretary of Scotland be petitioned to introduce a
Bill amending the Local Government (Scotland) Act to empower
County Councils (a) to define areas for lighting, cleansing, and
paving roads or streets (in populous places) and to assess therefor;
and (b) to exercise the functions of a Dean of Guild Court in
controlling the erection of new buildings as far as the site and
sanitary arrangements are concerned."

POLLUTION OF RIVERS.

Western District. - The question of the pollution of the Leven
has not been before the Committee. But at one of the largest
printfields on the Leven a series of experiments is being carried
out with regard to the efficacy of a new decolorizing and precipi-
tating agent, the property of the Strathclyde Chemical Company.
What the result will be is not yet certain, though one experiment,
of which I was a witness, gave such an effluent as to make the
enquiry a hopeful one.
Eastern District. - The Luggie at Waterside is affected by the
coal washing at Wester Gartshore pit, immediately above the
village. I called the attention of the owners to this, and they
have formed an additional settling tank. The water, however, is

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still polluted, and further action will have to be taken to provide
a remedy.
The Kelvin at Auchenvole is similarly polluted by washings
from Nether Croy pit. The proprietors have been repeatedly
written to by the Sanitary Inspector, and have agreed to take steps
to prevent the pollution, but as a matter of fact the Kelvin
remains pretty much as it was. Here also further action will be
necessary.

ORGANISATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT.

The question as to the amount and nature of the assistance
required to carry out the Public Health Acts in the county
has received much and careful attention during the year, and
it is only recently, as the result of growing experience, that
I have ventured to report to the District Committees on the
matter. As the subject had reference to both districts, the
Report treated of the requirements of the county as a whole.
It began by giving the following rough calculation of
probable routine sanitary work, which, to avoid exaggeration, was
kept well within the mark:-

-- Annual Visits or
Inspections.
Farms, 500, inspected quarterly, -- 2000
Houses let in lodgings, 400, visited quarterly -- 1600
Common lodging-houses, 20, visited fortnightly
(one-half of the visits being at night), -- 480
Retail bakehouses, 25, visited half-yearly, -- 50
Slaughter-houses, 15, visited quarterly, -- 60
Cases of infectious disease, 330, each visited,
say, thrice, -- 1000*
Total, -- 5190

The report continued, "The visits to infectious cases include
the carrying out of house fumigation in nearly all the cases, the
removal, where required, of patients to hospitals, and the removal
of infected clothing and bedding to a disinfecting chamber at an
hospital.
"In addition, there is all the work relating to ordinary nuisance

*This is probably considerably understated.