68 The Pullic Health. [Jan., 



to the urgency of the outbreak ; and the Medical Officers of Health 

 attended these meetings, reported on the progress of the disease, and 

 recommended what steps should he taken. 



2. In most of the Metropolitan parishes where it was ascertained 

 that Cholera had actually broken out, medical visitors were appointed 

 to whom every case of Cholera and Diarrhoea was reported, and who 

 went to every house where persons had taken the disease, and not 

 only prescribed for and treated the sick, but inspected the house 

 and reported its condition to the Medical Officer of Health, who met 

 the medical visitors every day. The medical visitors also had 

 power to order food, wine, and other stimulants that were necessary 

 for persons suffering under Cholera or Diarrhoea. 



3. Arrangements were made with dispensaries, hospitals, or 

 chemists and druggists, for the supply of medicines ordered by the 

 medical visitors at all hours of the night and day. Xurses were 

 also engaged to be in readiness to attend on any persons who might 

 immediately require assistance at their own houses. 



4. The staff of sanitary inspectors was increased, and a house- 

 to-house visitation made by them in those districts, where, from 

 unhealthy arrangements, or over-crowding, Cholera was likely to 

 break out. The inspectors were supplied with disinfectants, which 

 they applied in all cases where persons had been attacked with 

 Diarrhoea or Cholera ; and in many districts water-carts containing 

 a solution of carbolic acid were sent round to gulley-holes, and 

 stable-yards, and other places where disinfectants were likely to be 

 of service. 



5. The clothes of all persons who had died of Cholera, an ihe 

 bed and bed-linen in which they had slept, were immediately 

 destroyed. The things thus destroyed were immediately replaced 

 at the expense of the Yestry or parish in which the ease*occurred. 



6. The surface well-pumps were directed to be closed, and the 

 waters from cisterns and butts, where Cholera and Diarrhoea 

 prevailed, were examined by the Medical Officer of Health ; and all 

 cisterns and butts were directed to be well cleansed at least once a- 

 fortnight during the epidemic. 



This will give a general idea of the measures taken in those 

 districts of London where the fewest number of cases of Cholera 

 have occurred. That these measures were not fully carried out in 

 the Eastern districts of the Metropolis is well known. Whether 

 that outbreak, and its subsequent development, could have been pre- 

 vented altogether, may be questioned ; but that its severity might 

 have been mitigated and the mortality lessened to a large extent, 

 had more active measures been adopted, there can be no doubt. 

 The only excuse that Yestries and Local Boards make for their 

 supineness in sanitary matters, is the expense, and yet who can doubt 

 that bv the saving of life and disease, the community would have 



