HH62/2/RENFRE/29

Transcription

[Page] 28

upon which as small a quantity as one-hundredth of an inch fell is
reckoned on the list, the really 'rainy days' were doubtless less by
about one-half than might be supposed from the tabular abstract.
The months of greatest 'wind pressure' at Paisley were September
and December; west and south-westerly winds were the most pre-
valent - especially in the autumn months; while the dryness of the
early summer months was doubtless associated with the exceptional
prevalence of easterly winds which characterised these months. It is
important to observe, as illustrating the distinction between excessive
rainfall and moistness of the atmosphere, that while the Greenock
rainfall amounted to 60 inches, as compared with 30 at Paisley,
the mean humidity (degree of moistness of the atmosphere)
was 4 per cent. less at Greenock. In Paisley, the black-bulb
thermometer, exposed to the sun, registered 95·1° in the month
of June, the temperature in the shade at the same time being
82·5°. The black-bulb minimum thermometers on the grass
(indicating the earth radiation and temperature on the surface
of the ground, at night) fell as low as 11·8° - the equivalent,
in popular phrase, of 20 degrees of frost - in March, at the same time
the minimum thermometer in the shade registered 21·0°. While,
however, the lowest temperatures were registered in that month, the
mean temperature of the month was a degree higher than that of the
month of January. At Paisley, the mean monthly range of tempera-
ture (i.e., difference between the highest and lowest temperatures of
the month) was 33·4°, as compared with 29·1° at Greenock; the mean
'daily range' being 13° at Paisley, as compared with 12·1° at
Greenock; whereby the greater equability of climate of Greenock,
due, doubtless, to its relative proximity to the sea, is demonstrated.

THE FORMER SANITARY ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.

As is well known, the former sanitary organization in Scotland
was parochial. The Parochial Board was the Local Authority for
the administration of the Public Health Act in each parish. It
would be invidious for me to enter into a discussion of the reasons
which led to the transference of the duties of the Parochial Boards,
as guardians of the public health, to the County Council and District
Committees; they are all comprehended in the axiom that 'the
smaller the unit of sanitary administration, the less efficient.' Ac-
cepting that as axiomatic, it may be remarked, in passing, that in

[Page] 29

future the least efficient sanitary authorities in Scotland will be the
smaller burghs, which have been left in an anomalous and undefined
position, in respect of sanitary administration, under the Local
Government Act. Most people who have devoted any attention to
the subject regret that the smaller burghs, burghs under, say, 20,000
inhabitants, were not placed in the same relation to the County
Council as the Districts of the County, in respect of sanitary adminis-
tration.
At the passing of the Local Government Act, there were, in the
First or Upper District of the County, seven parishes, with the larger
half of an eighth, Govan (part of which was in Lanarkshire), and
smaller portions of a ninth and tenth, Beith and Dunlop (the major
portions of which were in Ayrshire). In the Second or Lower Dis-
trict were seven parishes, with the smaller portions of the parishes of
Greenock and Port-Glasgow which are landward. In the service of
the Parochial Boards, acting as Local Authorities for these parishes,
there were 21 Medical Officers, whose gross salaries amounted to
£149 5s. (exclusive of one officer paid by fees), and 16 Sanitary In-
spectors, with salaries amounting in the aggregate to £418 10s. - or
a total of £567 15s. Parochial Renfrewshire had therefore been, in
this matter, more liberal and enlightened than most counties. Still,
it will be understood that, in the case of the Medical Officer, the
average salary of £7 was intended rather as a retaining fee, in order
that the Local Authority might have the benefit of his advice when
they desired it, than as remuneration for the duties he was hypo-
thetically understood to discharge, under the regulations of the Board
of Supervision and the requirements of the Public Health Act.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT.

The County of Renfrew, acting under the provisions of the Local
Government Act, 1889 (which superseded the parochial system of
sanitary administration in Scotland), alone, I believe, among the
counties of Scotland, determined first of all to appoint a Medical
Officer of Health for the County, and to require him to produce for
the consideration of the County Council, and of a Special Committee
appointed for the purpose, a draft scheme for the constitution of a
County Health Department. The County Council decided from the
first that the Medical Officer of Health should be head of the County
Health Department - a matter which would have been a work of