( 46 ) 
The Chief Inspector reports to the Colonial Surgeon, who reports to the 
Board, which then decides what action shall be taken. 1 he notices for the 
abatement of nuisance are signed by the Chairman of the Board. 
The Position of the Medical Officer. — According to Section 12 of Ordin- 
ance 30, 1904, before cited, the Governor-in-Council can appoint at any time 
“ The District Board in any District, together with a Medical Officer or other 
Health Officer, to be the Local Board of Health within such district.” From 
1903 to 1905 the Assistant Colonial Surgeon in Belize was the Medical 
Officer of the Board, but his duties and position do not appear to have been 
clearly defined, he appears not to have been a member of the Board, nor 
were the recommendations and resolutions of the Health Board ever referred 
to him for guidance or otherwise. As an instance of the want of direct 
relationship, I find that on April 20th, 1904, that is one year before the 
outbreak of yellow fever, the then Medical Officer to the Board wrote pointing 
out that the sanitary inspection of the town was not carried out satisfactorily, 
the Inspector of Nuisances having too many duties to attend to. An Assistant 
Inspector was appointed, but he. too, owing to other duties, could not give 
his whole time. For a considerable time previous to the year 1903 there does 
not appear to have been a medical officer of the Colony on the Board, as it 
is stated that the Colonial Surgeon had resigned, and when in 1903 the 
Assistant Colonial Surgeon was appointed Medical Officer of Health he does 
not appear to have been nominated a member of the Board, nor to have been 
in very direct touch with the Board, as least so far as I can ascertain. The con- 
nection was certainly not such as exists between a Medical Officer of Health and 
a Board of Health in England. In 1905 the Senior Colonial Surgeon was 
made Health Officer for Belize, taking a seat on the Board, the Assistant 
Colonial Surgeon directing his whole attention to the quarantine. On 
June 1st, 1905, a memorandum was drawn up, with the approval of the 
Governor, as a guide for the “ Public Health duties of the Colonial Surgeon 
as Health Officer for the Colony and Health Officer for the Local Board of 
Health for the Belize District But this memorandum is simply a recitation 
of the duties of a Medical Officer of Health, in the dual capacity of medical 
adviser to the Central Board of Health, and Health Officer to the Local 
Board. 
As Health Officer to the Local Board, he is so only in an advisory 
capacity, he is not, as the District Surveyor, an executive officer of the 
Board. There is therefore no medical executive officer to the Board. 
The experience of this year shows that sanitary control and inspection must 
be more vigilant and practical in the future than in the past, and more adapted 
to meet the conditions of tropical health conditions than at present. In the 
first place, dealing with the local sanitation of Belize, I am of opinion that it 
would be more advantageous and economical for the Local Board of Belize 
to have control of a responsible, well-trained and practical sanitary surveyor 
or engineer, well versed in modern sanitation as applied to the tropics, who 
should understand practically, and be made responsible for the execution of, the 
new measures of water screening, bush clearing, scavenging, drainage, fumi- 
gation, &c., especially directed to the prevention of yellow fever and malaria, as 
