HH62/2/LANARK/27

Transcription

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decision on these grounds acts most prejudicially to the
cause of sanitation, and in England, I believe, it would not
be necessary to require positive proof of injury to health
before condemning any premises as a nuisance. Such
proof is notoriously difficult to give, although every one con-
cerned may be satisfied that a dangerous nuisance exists.

Various matters of no little importance I have been
unable yet to undertake, but regarding which I hope in my
next report to give you full information. Chief among
these are the inspection of slaughter-houses, with regula-
tions for their management, the inspection of meat, the
condition of the bakehouses - these, singularly enough, by
the law of Scotland, being under the direct and sole inspec-
tion of the Medical Officer - and the condition of the schools.
Although each of these subjects has engaged my atten-
tion, yet my observations have been of too fragmentary
a character to be worth recording here.
In addition to what may be termed the routine work of
the Medical Officer, details of which will be more fully
given when I deal with each ward in turn, I have attended
a considerable number of meetings during the eight months
in which I have held office, the total number being 88. As
was to be expected, the greatest number of those meetings
have been connected with the Middle Ward of the county.
The total number of special inspections made during
the eight months is 33, and these are particularised in the
reports which follow on the respective wards.
The number of certificates granted for nuisances has been
20, mostly in the Lower Ward.

General Recommendations. - From what has preceded
it is scarcely necessary to state on what lines the improve-
ments in the sanitary condition of the county must proceed.
They may, however, be summarised in a few words -
1. The improvement of the houses of the working-classes,
especially of the miners, and the establishment of a
code of building regulations.

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2. The abolition of the present barbarous privy and
ashpit, so common in villages and miners' rows.
3. The proper drainage of the districts generally, and of
the smaller villages in particular.
4. Scavenging of the populous places, including the
periodical cleansing of ashpits.
5. Disposal of refuse either by burning in "destructors"
or utilising as manure.
6. The enforcement of the provisions of the Rivers Pol-
lution Prevention Act.
It is to be noted that, as already stated, water supply,
hospital accommodation, adulteration of foods, regulations
for dairies and cowsheds have been already practically dealt
with throughout the county generally. Therefore, I have
not included them in the above list.

In concluding my report on the general sanitary condi-
tion of the county, I am bound to express the hope that
very soon a new Public Health Act for Scotland will be
passed. So far back as 1876, Sheriff Spens, in his book on
the "Sanitary System of Scotland," wrote that, "since our
Public Health Act of 1867, there has been no large Public
Health measure passed with reference to Scotland. In
England, on the other hand, there has been great legislative
activity in sanitary matters. There must, I believe, be,
at no distant date, a Public Health Amendment Act."
Although the Local Government Act has dealt with
many of the objections raised by Sheriff Spens, yet there
is more than ever a need for a well conceived Public Health
measure for Scotland.
It is, to say the least of it, anomalous that the new
sanitary officers of Scotland should have to use as their
main instrument an Act passed a quarter of a century ago,
and that, too, when our ideas of sanitation have undergone,
in that long interval, quite a transformation.