DR. RICHARD CATON'S PAPER 67 



Strenuous efforts are made on the one hand to 

 instruct the people as to the feeding and management 

 of infants, and on the other to banish the causes of 

 contagion. Ash-pits in which offensive refuse accu- 

 mulates are being rapidly done away with. Over 

 116,000 closed metallic ash-bins have been sub- 

 stituted ; these are emptied every two or three days. 

 A strenuous campaign against the household fly is 

 being carried on. The accumulation of stable or 

 cow-house manure is prevented in densely populated 

 areas. More than 400,000 rooms are examined every 

 year, defects reported and cleansing orders issued 

 when needful. Everywhere an abundant and con- 

 stant supply of pure water is given to the people. 

 Cellar dwellings are being done away with as rapidly 

 as possible ; none having a floor level more than 2 ft. 

 below the street are permitted, and of these only 

 i, 600 now remain. More than 11,000 dirty or 

 infected houses are purified, and usually about 29,000 

 sanitary conveniences are cleansed and put in order 

 annually. Every drain in the city, of course, is 

 systematically flushed with the hose at frequent 

 intervals ; streets and passages are cleansed with 

 the hose, once or twice, or thrice a week, where it 

 is found needful, and about one million square 

 yards of street surface are treated with dust-fixing 

 composition. 



During the autumn of* 1911, when the great 

 general strike in Liverpool stopped all sanitary work, 

 such as the clearing of ash-bins and ash-pits, and 

 when difficulties occurred in the food supply, zymotic 

 diarrhoea became more fatal than in any other year. 



Insanitary dwellings are an important cause of 

 infantile mortality. The Municipality has destroyed 

 a vast number of them, caused the alteration and 

 amendment of others and erected some thousands 

 of healthy and sanitary houses which are placed 

 at the disposal of the poor families ejected from 



