Board of Health.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5024, 10 June 1884, Page 2

Board of Health.

• DR NEDWILL'S EEPORT. The following is the report prepared by Dr Nedwill on the proposed Roberts' closet pan system, and presented to the Board of Health for consideration at this afternoon's meeting : — " Christchurch, June 9, 18S4. " To the Chairman Board of Health. " Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a communication from the Secretary to your Board, to ask my opinion on the following proposition : ' Supposing the effluent water from Roberts' patent system runs direct into the sewers, would there still be any objection to it ; the solids being emptied at short intervals.' In reply, I would state that I can see no sanitary objection to the effluent water being allowed access to the sewage sewers, provided the regulations now in force with regard to water-closet connections be adhered to. "With regard to removing that portion of the excreta which has not filtered through the perforations in the pans, as no particular time is specified to define what is meant by 'short intervals/ I feel called upon to state that delay in emptying the pans should not bo tolerated. "With reference to this subject, I would submit, for the quid- j ance oi the Board, the following quota-

: tions from tho ' Roports of the Medical ! Officer of tho Privy Council and Local Government Board of England.' In excrement disposal, ' success has been obtained from certain well-defined principles of action, which appear to me to bo essential to successful work of the same kind elsewhere. Foremost amongst these, and regulating all that follows, is the frequency of removal of deposited excrement/ The arrangements to this end must of necessity govern all other arrangements, and it is requisite that they should be firstdetermined by a local authority. The peculiar advantage of the water-cloßet is that, with properly arranged and rightly constructed drains and sewers, and duly supplied with water, it admits of cxcrcmental matter being removed without offensiveness beyond the precinctß of a house, and from amidst a community, immediately after it has been deposited. Dr Buchanan and I, in discussing the period during which excrement Bhould be permitted to remain in tho vicinity of dwellings, expressed ourselves, in 1869, in the following words, which I reiterate now in 1884 : — ' In the present imperfect Btate of our knowledge of the conditions under which .fsecal diseases spread, we do not feel ourselves entitled to say at what time, after being passed, dejections are, or may (under various external circumstances) become dangerous to health. We cannot say this, either in regard of Wealthy excrement or of that passed from persons affected with diseases, specific dr other 5 but we think it may probably be taken as sufficiently true for practical purposes that there is little chance of mischief from the storage of excrement for & day, even though along with healthy excrement that of persons affected, for example, by enteric fever should, without proper disinfection, chance occasionally to be included. We propose, then, to regard compltte removal of all excrement within a day as practically constituting safety in tliQ case where excrement is unmixed, or is only mixed with ashes/ 'The want of clear recognition of the principle that systematic frequent scavenging is the initial consideration in improved methods of excrement disposal other than water sewerage has led to much fruitless work in attempts to improve the midden-system.' 'It is unneceßf ary to dwell upon a sanitary truth so certain as that excrement, if it is to be stored at all in the vicinity of houses, along with no> better guard than ashes, should be stored for the shortest possible space of time.* ' Tho plan of weekly scavenging of nightsoil is at present held alone feasible as a general practice in those towns which have adopted systematic measures for abating midden nuisances ; but special arrangements are commonly made for scavenging, at more frequent intervals, particular houses, such as lodging-houses, or districts where greater frequency in obviously called for. The important principle, in fact, is steadily becoming recognised, that where it has not been found practicable, as yet, to bring the intervals of scavenging for a whole place within those limits which considerations of health render desirable, a different rule thould ha applied to the least wholesome localities of the place, by scavenging those more frequently, thus regulating the scavenging by the greater or less degrees of filthiness or liability tofilthinlss of particular localtieß.' ' Dosing with chemicals or covering up .with ashes and dry refuse, as the excrement may have been submitted to, has been, designed merely to diminish offence from it pending removal. The dry system of excrement-disposal differs materially from the foregoing systems in this, — that the earth, if used in sufficient quantity, while acting as an efficient deodorant, at the same time destroys the excrement as such, producing a uniform, inoffensive, earthy mass. In this state, judging from the sight and the smell, it might seem as if the removal of the mixed earth and excrement from the vicinity of dwellings could, with safety, be greatly prolonged, and the cost of such removal proportionately economised. In our present state of knowledge of this compost, and of the precise mode of origin of diseases connected with excrement, such a conclusion would be premature j and, for the present, at least, the same principles should apply to the removal of the mixed earth and excrement from the vicinity of houses as apply to mixed ashes and excrement, or to excrement alone.' 'It is claimed for mixed charcoal and excrement that it need not be removed from the receptacle more than once in twelve months 5 but the same observations apply here as have been made in respect to mixed earth and excrement. The claim is made upon a presumption which has 'no present substantial foundation ; and the use of the Bystem among a community should be governed by the same principles as govern other systems of removing excrement by cartage.' In speaking of the Goux absorbent system, whore compressed shoddy or stubble is used as a lining in the pans, the report from which I have quoted states — ' Dr Buchanan and I had seen this system at work in Salford in 1869, and as there managed, as I have stated in my report on that town, we observed no sanitary advantage which was not to be obtained from a simple pail system. A detailed examination of the working of the system in Halifax showed, as a rule, a less degree of offensireness to> the eye than is commonly observed in the simple pail system.' While I readily admit that the pail Bystem, as carried out in this district, is very offensive — the full pails not being replaced by clean, deodorised, empty ones, and their removal not being carried out in properly closed vans— - I have considered it my duty to quote thus largely from the highest authority in order to prevent any system coming into use in this district which contemplates having the pans emptied • only once in from four to six weeks.' — I am, &c, " COXTKTNEY NeDWILIi, "Medical-Officer."