HH62/2/ROSS/9

Transcription

[Page] 8

scarcely a School site has been selected on account of the
proximity of a good well - a common point of advantage in
choosing the position of an ordinary dwelling-house. "The
Department," is greatly to blame in not Iaying down a rule in
this respect. Water, for purposes of bodily cleanliness is best
furnished from rain water tanks. They need not be very large
to meet the demands all the year round in our climate. The
water having been provided, then there ought to be lavatories
in every School, with soap and a towel provided by the School
Board. I was much interested to find this privilege taken free
advantage of by the fisher boys and girls in the Cromarty
School. A word from the master on dirty hands or faces
would keep everything right. I have already spoken of the
urinals. They too could be readily flushed automatically and
periodically by the rain water collected from their roofs.
I am opposed to W.C's. as a rule. They require much
water, constant attention, and when out of order need the
expensive and troublesome services of a plumber. An arrange-
ment of dry prviies, such as are so well planned and managed
at Tarbat and Culbokie is simple and sufficient. Indeed, l am
inclined to believe that, after all, the pail system would be at
once the simplest and best. Mr Ross, at Ferrintosh, worsk it
well. In either case, a piece of land should be attached to
the School where the contents could be applied as manure. Mr
Meldrum finds it useful on his small farm, used in this way.
Many Schools want better means of ventilation and heating.
No inlet for cold air should open too near the children, and a
supply of warmed, fresh air, as in the Manchester grate, which
I found working very well in several cases, is to be recom-
mended. The outlets should be always protected by flaps. In
most cases they frequently act, especially in stormy weather
as inlets. It may be thought that I am entering into too
much detail as regards Schools, and perhaps I should have
directed my attention to Churches and Halls. But not only
are the greatest dangers arising constantly from neglect of the
laws of health in connection with children crowded together,
fasting, it may be, and susceptible to all the deadly ailments
of childhood, but I wish the Council to be persuaded that in
the interests of Hygiene here they have an opportunity never

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perhaps to recur, of presenting object lessons of the necessity of
attention to sanitary rules daily, nay hourly, to the young and
open mind. If health be the valuable thing we all believe it
to be, surely we cannot afford to lose the best possible chance
of setting forth its importance and enforcing its safeguards.

My friend, Dr Ross, Barvas, who has sent me a most careful
and thoughtful document on the public health of his parish,
has suggested the printing and publishing of a leaflet in Gaelic
summarising the leading points of Hygiene and especially ex-
pounding the rules for dealing with outbreaks of infectious
disease. I hope that he and I may be able to arrange for this,
which I feel sure would be of great service to many, and I trust
the County Council may give its sanction to such a publication.

The next division is a very wide one, viz., the Sanitary Con-
dition generally of the County, but is really narrowed by the
other sections which follow. The first subject to consider is
the primary one of means of communication. It is only dawn-
ing on our legislators that there are parts of Scotland and
Ireland where there are no roads. It is simply disgraceful
that such a state of things should exist within the bounds of
a rich and prosperous country like our own. The providing
of means of transit is the very first step in sanitary progress, and
without such we officers of public health are powerless. I trust
then, Parliament in its wisdom will see the urgency of the
petition for help, and mercifully grant its prayer. As Dr Ross
in his report well shows, good roads and drainage go together.
In connection with very many townships in the West and
even in the villages of the East Coast, means for loading off
the surface water quickly are urgently needed. Otherwise
stagnant, putrifying pools are left to breed all sorts of noxious,
organic substances, fit hot-bed for the germs of disease, and it
may be of death.
The next most important point is the disposal of slop
waters which may be carried off by the channels spoken of, or
in the absence of sewers, carried into ordinary tile drains
which, where there is sufficient fall, might be used to irrigate,
at a proper depth from the surface, some convenient piece of
ground. The solid refuse, including the excreta, should be

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