HH62/2/WIGTOW/27

Transcription

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courses of lectures or demonstrations in the various localities, as, in fine,
to the most fruitful methods of making the public health an informing
and real force in the life of the community, not a mere negative and
purely regulative office. The approximation to this ideal will, I am
satisfied, result in the better ordering of our villages and cot-houses and
a gradual displacing of the indifference to unhealthy conditions by an
active impulse for individual betterment.
Second. That in view of the above conceptions the District
Committee order special inspections of all the chief villages. These
should each be examined, and each reported on as time and occasion
permit. Water, drainage, and housing should receive special attention.
These reports should in the first instance come before the sub-committee,
which in special cases would consider the advisability of making them
public or bringing them by any other means under the notice of the
administrations or individuals most concerned. In a civilised com-
munity where expense must always count as an item in any suggested
change, this seems to me the most reasonable course of procedure. The
District Committee as a whole is too large a body for such a purpose;
multitudes of minor, yet essential, changes come up for consideration.
and these it would often be a waste of time and energy to bring before
a large body. The small Committee suggested could, on the other
hand, arrange and apportion the work with complete effect, and the
result at the end of the year would be a continuous record of work done.
At present the other administrative duties of the District Committee
necessitate the relegation of public health to a small proportional place
in the regular agenda.
Third. That the public institutions, such as schools, be similarly
reported on, under the same conditions.

II. - INQUIRIES DURING THE YEAR.

Beyond the detailed collation of figures involved in the death tables
and seventh head of this report, there has been no matter needing a
general and extended inquiry. The only matter I have been requested
to report upon was the retention or non-retention of the existing medical
officers. The Board and Council have already had my report on that
topic. As yet no circumstances have arisen to make me add anything
to that report. In regard to other sanitary matters, the Sanitary
Inspector quite recently finished a detailed inspection of the district,
and will present his results in due course. Nothing existed to demand
another inspection so near the end of the year, and I have, therefore,
put off any systematic health inquiries over the localities until, first, the
comparative study of the death for the year revealed the most


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unhealthy areas; until, second, my laboratory was in order for the
systematic analysis of water; until, third, a more direct and easy means of
approach and access to the administrative body was possible. The first
condition is already fulfilled; the second and third will be fulfilled, I
trust, in a few weeks. The only special inquiry during the year was in
connection with certain nuisances at Kirkcowan and Isle of Whithorn.
These have been attended to.

III. AND IV.

Under those heads there is nothing to report. There are five
bakehouses in the district. These will be visited one by one in the
ordinary rounds of inspection.

V. - HOSPITAL SUPERVISION.

I have received no positive information from any official or member
of Committee regarding any hospital whatsoever. I have been casually
informed that the Dumfries Infirmary is available for the district; also
that the small tenement in a back street in Newton-Stewart is available.
Having no official cognisance of these hospitals as hospitals of the
Local Authority, I am not in a position to report on the same.

VI. - PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.

During my six months of office no single case of infectious disease
has been brought under my notice. As yet no regular means exist for
doing so. But the District Committee has now before it the proposal
to adopt the Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act, which will constitute
in every way a better intelligence department than the monthly returns
from the registrars. This was my only means of information regarding
the 11 deaths from measles in Kirkcowan. There has been one death
from whooping cough. These facts indicate a very satisfactory condition
in regard to zymotic diseases. What I am able to report on hospitals I
have reported above. It is my opinion that the matter of hospital
isolation should be referred to the Health Committee I have proposed.
But the essential case for such a hospital will not be obvious until the
Notification Act has been some time in force. The proposed Com-
mittee, however, should receive a special instruction to enquire, first,
into the necessity; second, the form and situation of isolation hospitals.
And this in consultation with the Medical Officer.

VII. - CAUSES, ORIGIN, AND DISTRIBUTION
OF DISEASE.

As yet the only means available for determining the cause, origin,
and distribution of disease in the district is the deaths and death-rates