ports on vaccination and every matter
of health pertaining to their respective districts; to him every
registrar of births and deaths forwards copies of his registration
returns; and to his office are sent, by the medical men generally,
registered returns of the cases of sickness prevailing in the
district. His inspectors likewise make careful returns of all the
known prevailing diseases of the lower animals and of plants. To his
office are forwarded, for examination and analysis, specimens of foods
and drinks suspected to be adulterated, impure, or otherwise
unfitted for use. For the conduction of these researches the sanitary
superintendent is allowed a competent chemical staff. Thus, under this
central supervision, every death, every disease of the living world in
the district, and every assumable cause of disease, comes to light and
is subjected, if need be, to inquiry.
At a distance from the town are the sanitary works, the sewage pumping
works, the water and gas works, the slaughter-houses and the public
laboratories. The sewage, which is brought from the town partly by
its own flow and partly by pumping apparatus, is conveyed away to
well-drained sewage farms belonging to, but at a distance from, the
city where it is utilised.
The water supply, derived from a river which flows to the south-west
of the city, is unpolluted by sewage or other refuse, is carefully
filtered, is tested twice daily, and if found unsatisfactory is
supplied through a reserve tank, after it has been made to undergo
further purification. It is carried through the city everywhere by
iron pipes. Leaden pipes are forbidden. In the sanitary establishment
are disinfecting rooms, a mortuary, and ambulances for the conveyance
of persons suffering from contagious disease. These are at all times
open to the use of the public, subject to the few and simple rules of
the management.
The gas, like the water, is submitted to regular analysis by the staff
of the sanitary officer, and any fault which may be detected, and
which indicates a departure from the standard of purity framed by the
Municipal Council, is immediately remedied, both gas and water being
exclusively under the control of the local authority.
The inspectors of the sanitary officer have under them a body of
scavengers. These, each day, in the early morning, pass through the
various districts allotted to them, and remove all refuse in closed
vans. Every portion of manure from stabl
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