Dr. Theodore Thomson's report to the Local Government Board on persistence of enteric fever in the Swinton and Pendlebury Urban District : and on the sanitary circumstances and administration of the district.

  • Thomson, Theodore.
Date:
1898
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Theodore Thomson's report to the Local Government Board on persistence of enteric fever in the Swinton and Pendlebury Urban District : and on the sanitary circumstances and administration of the district. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    OFFICIAL COPY. Dr. Theodore Thomson’s Report to the Local Government Board on persistence of Enteric Fever in the Swinton and Pendlebury Urban District; and on the Sanitary Circumstances and Administration of the District W. H. Power, Assistant Medical Officer, December 20th, 1898. In the spring o£ the present year the Board’s attention was directed to a statement by the Medical Officer of Health of the Swinton and Pendlebury Urban District, in his Report on the health of Swinton and Pendlebury during 1897, that there had been unusual prevalence of enteric fever in the district in the latter part of that year. Investigation regarding recent years anterior to 1897 showed that there had been marked prevalence of enteric fever in the district in those years, also. Thereupon the Board wrote to the Urban District Council directing their attention to these facts and to the existence of un¬ sanitary conditions in their district referred to in the Medical Officer of Health’s Report for 1897, more especially in association with the old privy-midden system still in vogue in Swinton and Pendlebury. The Board requested the Urban District Council to give these matters their serious consideration, and expressed a hope that the Council would take such steps as might be necessary to substitute a proper system of excrement and refuse disposal for that in use in Swinton and Pendlebury, and also that they would do their utmost to remove all unwholesome conditions tending to foster the existence of enteric fever in the district. Correspondence ensued between the Board and the Urban District Council, from which it appeared that the latter regarded the Board as taking too unfavourable a view of the health and the sanitary circumstances of the district. I was accordingly instructed by the Board to visit Swinton and Pendlebury, and to make inquiry as to prevalence of enteric fever there, and also as to the sanitary circumstances and administration of the district. This I did on several occasions in the months of June and July, ascertaining the facts now about to be set forth. The Urban District of Swinton and Pendlebury, some four miles to the north-west of Manchester, had, at the census of 1891, a population of 21,637, with an area of 2,196 acres. Its rateable value for the present year is £96,198 ; and the current rates are 2s. 8d. in the £ for the general district rate and Is. 10d. in the £ for the poor rate. The chief industries are collieries, cotton spinning, and weaving ; while there are also bleach works and breweries in the district. Geologically, Swinton and Pendlebury are on the Coal Measures ; which, however, are here overlaid by a considerable amount of Drift, chiefly in the form of Glacial Sand and Gravel and of River Valley Gravel. The soil on which the dwellings in the more populous parts of the district stand is locally stated to be for the most part dry sand of uncertain depth. The condition of the public health in Swinton and Pendlebury may be gathered from the following tables (Tables A and B), in which are shown the deaths and death rates from all causes and from certain particular causes during the ten years 1888-97 ; while, for purposes of comparison, like data are given for England and M ales, and also for the 33 Great Towns in Table C. LONDON: PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY . OFFICE, By DARLING & SON, Ltd., 1-3, Great St. Thomas Apostle, E.C. . And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C.; or JOHN MENZIES & Co., 12, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, and 90, West Nile Street, Glasgow ; or HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., Limited, 104, Grafton Street, Dublin. 1898. | ^SLLCOMB Price Three Pence. LIBRARY £ General Collections No. 134. 628—375—9/98 Wt 12398 D k S 19