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not at all discredit the appeals which are constantly, and very 
properly, made to chemistry, for help in quite’a different sphere of 
operation, namely, with regard to the management of individual 
cases of infectious disease, and to the immediate disinfection of 
everything which comes from and surrounds the patients—the 
cleansing of dark, narrow passages by the means of whitewashing 
with hot lime and carbolic acid, chloride of lime, or other such 
disinfectants. The thorough flushing of the sewers may also do much 
to alleviate the condition of the poor people living in the neighbour- 
hood. It has been found that, under a visitation of Enteric fever 
from filth infection, any attempts at going through the ceremony 
of applying vague chemical libations or powderings, has proved 
futile. If our Local Authorities wish to reduce the vast amount of 
preventible disease, which has its type in Enteric fever, or other 
diseases zetiologically akin to it, and in relation to which, each 
individual case which occurs ought to have an important local 
significance, the one essential condition is cleanliness. That Local 
Sanitary Authorities, acting upon this principle, and with a full 
determination to enforce it in their respective districts, can, within 
a few years, reduce by tens of thousands the annual mortality 
of England, is at least as certain as that the causes pointed out 
are the means of producing the diseases alluded to. 
It will be seen from the foregoing disjointed remarks, that my 
aim has been to point out what I consider to be the proper mode 
of carrying out the work of a properly governed sanitary district. 
As I stated at the outset, there must be effective sewerage, a good 
water supply, proper ventilation, and the absence of overcrowding. 
In the Whitehaven Rural Sanitary District, I am sorry to say that 
almost throughout its whole breadth and length, there is a marked 
absence of all these. 
There is another matter of a general character to which I 
would also advert. At present, the means of learning the existence 
of infectious diseases in my extensive district, are so defective, 
that I am quite unable to take adequate steps to prevent the spread 
of such diseases, and by offosing the beginnings, to cut short an 
epidemic. It is my duty, according to my instructions, “on 
