HH62/2/LANARK/9

Transcription

[Page] 8

county, and embodying the information obtained at the
census. For this purpose a considerable number of figures
have been already collected.
I avail myself of this opportunity to thank the members
of the Council for the consideration and courtesy they have
shown to me during the past year, and also to express my
gratitude to the Clerks of the County and of the three
Districts for the assistance and advice they have been ever
ready to give me.
I have only to add that the three County Sanitary
Inspectors have loyally carried out the duties imposed
upon them, and have united with me in endeavouring to
combat the spread of disease, and to improve the sanitary
condition of the county.

I am,
MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,
Your obedient Servant,
JAS. McLINTOCK.

COUNTY OFFICES, HAMILTON.
March, 1892.

THE COUNTY.

GENERAL SANITARY CONDITION.
LANARK is an inland county, occupying a large part of the
centre of southern Scotland, and bounded on the north
by Dumbarton and Stirling; on the east by Stirling,
Linlithgow, Midlothian, and Peebles; on the south by
Dumfries; and on the west by Ayr, Renfrew, and Dum-
barton. Its greatest length is from north-west to south-
east, a distance of 52 miles, and its greatest breadth
34 miles.
It has a total area of 882 square miles, and ranks tenth
among the counties of Scotland in point of size.
As regards population, however, it stands far above any
other Scottish county. At the last census the population
numbered 1,091,703, while that for the whole of Scotland
was 4,025,647; so that Lanarkshire contains over one-fourth
of the whole population of Scotland.
Glasgow and the burghs, however, have the largest share
of this population, the city since its extension containing
within its boundaries a population of 658,073, the whole
of which, with the exception of 46,282 in Renfrewshire,
was in the County of Lanark at November, 1891.
By the Local Government Act of 1889 the county
councils in Scotland have no jurisdiction as regards health
matters over the burghs, although these are in not a few
instances merely large villages. In this respect Scotland
differs considerably from England, where the county
councils have the sanitary supervision of the whole county,
except in towns having a population of 50,000 or more.
On the other hand, it may be remarked in passing that
the Scottish county councils do not merely exercise a
supervision, but have in their own hands, through the
district committees, the direct administration of the sani-
tary affairs, in this way securing a more direct and efficient