HH62/1/FIFE/17

Transcription

[page] 16

MORTALITY STATISTICS.

In Dunfermline District Report alone will be found the statistics
that every Medical Officer's report should contain. In the other
Districts, the returns sent by the local registrars were so incomplete
as to render it impossible to give the statistics of the entire Districts.
The difficulties experienced in this matter have been before you so
often, that it is not necessary to say more on this point. It is to be
hoped that, before long, the same facility for obtaining these returns
will be granted to Local Authorities in Scotland, as is provided for in
England by the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1874, Section 28.
For the Four Districts, I have calculated the "crude" death rates
for ten years; but, as both rural and urban deaths are included, from
the impossibility of separating them, these are of less value than they
otherwise would be.
In the following charts will be seen the death-rates of the counties
of Fife, Kinross, and Clackmannan for 10 years; also, the zymotic
death-rates for the same periods. In 1878, Fife death-rate was 18 per
1000, and in 1887, 17.9, showing very little decline in 10 years. The
zymotic death-rate in 1878 was 2.8, and in 1887 the same. In 1882,
it was as high as 3.5. The zymotic death-rates for Kinross-shire are
much more satisfactory than for Fife - due, no doubt, to the sparse
population.

DISTRICT REPORTS AND ABSTRACT FROM SANITARY
INSPECTORS' REPORTS.

In the remainder of this Report are the Reports which I have to
make to the District Committees, and abstracts from the Sanitary
Inspectors' Reports, which, by the Regulations of the County Council,
I have to make and include in my Report. The Sanitary Inspectors'
Reports are voluminous, and therefore cannot well be read at District
meetings, and I think it would be useful in future that they should be
printed and circulated, otherwise they can be of little use.

[page] 17

DUMFERMLINE DISTRICT.
SANITARY INSPECTOR'S REPORT.
DAIRIES AND COWSHEDS.

From Mr McLennan's Report I find that there are 115 cowsheds
in Dumfermline District, 33 of which have been registered during the
year. The whole of the 115 were inspected and measured, and a good
many of them were gone over a second time. The total number of
cows, in the Registered Dairies, is 1484, with a total space of 967,046
cubic feet. Each cow has, therefore, an average of 650 cubic feet.
Satisfactory conditions number 40, or nearly 35 per cent.
Not quite satisfactory conditions number 51, or nearly 44 per cent.
Very unsatisfactory conditions number 24, or nearly 21 per cent.
From my own personal inspections, I can state that that there are
several dairies in the District as carefully conducted, and with as much
attention to securing absolute cleanliness, as endeavours can effect. In
one, at my suggestion, arrangements are being made to supply specially
purified milk for the use of infants, on the principles of the Copenhagen
Milk Supply Company, which I was able to give from information I
derived from the Congress of Hygiene in London. In Denmark, the
care and attention paid to every detail of dairy management are far
ahead of anything attempted in this country; and the regulations in
force for securing the purity of such an important article of diet as milk
at once put the Danes far ahead of us in endeavouring to secure that
dairies arei n [are in] the perfectly sanitary condition they ought to be.

KIRKCALDY DISTRICT.
SANITARY INSPECTOR'S REPORT.

The report of Mr Low, the sanitary inspector for the District, is
a very complete one, and gives the main particulars of the sanitary con-
dition of the villages and hamlets in the District. This report by no
means indicates a satisfactory state of matters prevailing over the
District.
From the report on dairies and cowsheds, I find that there are 764
cows in the byres and cowsheds that have been inspected, with a total
cubic space of 537,139 feet, giving for each cow a little more than 700
cubic feet. This, the Inspector explains, will be curtailed when cow-
keepers take in their winter stock. Out of 114 dairies inspected, over
90 of them will require structural alterations, or nearly 79 per cent.
were found defective.
From the abstract statement of infectious cases ascertained, it will
be seen that these numbered 42, but it must be understood that a great
many of these intimated immediately after the Notification Act
came into force, and were convalescing, and the other cases not being
quite suitable for removal to hospital, hence during the past six months
no cases have been treated there.
All notices to schoolmasters, etc., are sent out by me, therefore
there are none reported by Mr Low.