HH62/1/KIRKCU/45

Transcription

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mittee appointed for the purpose, be made public in the local news-
papers. This suggestion I make for two reasons - first, because cases
have arisen where public interest would have been an effective aid to
the authorities; second, because in this way a continuous train of health
work can be laid for each important meeting of Committee, disposed of
more rapidly and discussed more satisfactorily when all the facts are
known beforehand.
Fourth. I propose to make, as my other duties permit, a special
inspection of the schools and other public institutions in the district.

II. - INQUIRIES DURING THE YEAR.
The result of my general inquiries during the year is given in the
above statement and in the tables of mortality. The general question of
rainfall, temperature, and geographical conditions, with their relation to
health, I have as yet obtained no data adequate for elucidating.
I have made certain preliminary inquiries at the following places:-
At Minnigaff village, relative to water and housing; at Creebridge,
relative to certain nuisances of long standing; at Palnure and Creetown,
relative to water supply and house accommodation. Minnigaff, Cree-
bridge, Blackcraig, and Creetown, will, at an early date, be the subject
of special reports.
Under heads III. and IV. anent workshops and proceedings against
bake-houses I have this year nothing to report.

V. - HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION AND INSPECTION.
The only hospital available for the district is the Royal Infirmary,
Dumfries. For all practical purposes the long distance of 50 miles will
render this hospital useless. The accommodation available for this and
the other three districts of the county is sixteen beds; but these are
also at the disposal of the county of Dumfries. It is obvious that in
case of need such accommodation is utterly inadequate. Details of my
visit to the Infirmary appear in the report on the Eastern District.

VI. - ACTION ANENT INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
The amount of infectious disease has been very trifling. Early in
the summer there occurred a somewhat serious outbreak of typhus and
typhoid fever in a common lodging-house at Blackcraig. This resulted
in two or three deaths. The prompt and persistent action of the local
medical attendants and the County Sanitary Inspector extirpated the
disease. The house is now in disuse. The original case, so far as after
the events I was able to ascertain, was imported from Stranraer.
Similar outbreaks will tend in future to be prevented, first, by the

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stricter bye-laws in regard to vagrancy, and next by the more efficient
inspection of Common Lodging-Houses. As a farther aid in the same
direction, the District Committee, in September last, adopted the Infec-
tious Diseases (Notification) Act, adding measles and whooping-cough
to the statutory list. The cases hitherto reported have been so few
that I entertain the hope of extirpating at least the main infectious
diseases in the district. Whooping-cough remains in the counties - as
in the towns - a disease with a high death-rate, yet rarely regarded as
serious; indeed, the idea everywhere to dislodge, in regard to whooping-
cough and measles, is that these diseases are not only too slight to need
any serious attention, but are also necessary incidents in child life and
a seasoning against the evil to come. I shall use every means in my
power to elevate these too diseases to the same grade of undesirability
in the public mind as diphtheria, typhus and scarlet fever already
occupy; so displacing a inexcusable apathy by an operative alarm for
the common safety.

VII. - CAUSE, ORIGIN, AND DISTRIBUTION OF DISEASE.
(a.) Cause. - In the tables of mortality I do not trace any prepon-
derating cause of death. But the district is too small, and the range of
time too limited to afford data for any extensive inferences, positive or
negative. The deaths, however, though in themselves few, yet exhibit
one or two striking relationships. Thus, perhaps, the least satisfactory
aspect of Table I. is the large proportion of deaths between 25 and 60
to deaths over 60. In this district for 36 that died between 25 and 60,
there died only 41 over 60. In the other districts, as the comparative
tables of the county annual report will show, this proportion is much
less. The inference is that, on the whole, the people of the western
part of the county tend to decay at an earlier age. The validity of the
inference is seriously qualified by the limited number of facts. At
present I offer this only as a fairly grounded conjecture, to be verified
or disproved by future research into the vital statistics of the parishes.
The fact as it stands, however, finds a certain support in the sanitary
state already described. To my mind the wonder has often been how
the occupants of certain kinds of houses resist for so long the miasmatic
influences of damp and changing soil. Perhaps the defective housing
drives men, women, and children unawares to be more in the open air
than where the houses are good; the life, too, is very often monotonous
and little exhausting to the most susceptible parts of the human organi-
zation. And yet, though the tables exhibit no direct connection of
dampness with mortality, I am satisfied from personal observation of
many cases that damp floors and walls coincide with a host of minor