HH62/1/ELGIN/5

Transcription

ELGINSHIRE.

REPORT BY THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR 1891.

Population of the District at Census of 1891 -- 26,201
Population estimated to the middle of 1891 -- 26,179
Approximate Area of District in Acres -- 302,500
Approximate Density of Population, .086 persons to an Acre.

Population. - The population has decreased during the last
decade. This decrease is most noticeable in the upper and higher
portions of the district, and in the purely agricultural parts of the
lower portion. In some of the larger villages and suburban districts
there has been an increase.
Acreage. - Owing to the formation of two Police Burghs, and
recent changes in the County and Parish Boundaries by the
Boundary Commissioners, I am unable at this time to give the exact
extent of the District and of the Parishes.

1. - GENERAL SANITARY STATE.
In giving an account of the sanitary state of a District we have
to take into consideration various points. We might judge of it
theoretically from its geology, meteorology, and physical conforma-
tion, taken in conjunction with its vital statistics; or we might judge
of it practically by personal observation and investigation into the
conditions under which the inhabitants live, their occupation, the
diseases most commonly met with amongst them, and how far those
diseases are due to insanitary surroundings.
In this district the majority of the inhabitants are engaged in
agriculture, living in detached cottages, but there is also a consider-
able number of large villages and hamlets. Some of the larger
villages are situated on the sea coast, and occupied by a fishing and
seafaring population. We have thus very different conditions of
environment to consider and to deal with.
Since my appointment I have visited and inquired into the
sanitary condition of the district generally, and especially of the
villages, because it is in communities that insanitary conditions most