The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-22 00:00:00

SANITARY PRECAUTIONS.

The following directions and regulations of the Gene-
ral Board of Health, issued under authority of the Nui-
sances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act, 1848,
section x., appear in a supplement to the London Gazette
of Tuesday, Sept. 20 :
To local boards of health acting under the Public
Health Act, 1848 ; to town councils or other bodies act-
ing under the authority of local acts of Parliament in
which the provisions of the Public Health Act are in-
cluded ; to the guardians of the poor of the several unions
in Engand and Wales, named in the first schedule here•
unto annexed ; to the guardians of the poor of the several
parishes in England and Wales, named in the second
schedule hereunto annexed ; to the overseers of the
poor of all parishes, townships, and places not comprised
in the unions and parishes mentioned in the first and
second schedules hereunto annexed ; to the mayor, alder-
men, and burgesses of cities and boroughs, commissioners
under local acts, the surveyors of highways, their depu-
ties and assistants, road trustees, commissioners, county
surveyors, and other persons by law intrusted with the
care and management of all streets, public ways and
places in any parish or place in England and Wales ; to
the owners and occupiers of houses, dwellings, churches,
buildings, and places of assembly within the said unions
and parishes, and others having the care and ordering
thereof, and to all whom it may concern—
Whereas by the provisions of " The Nuisances Re-
moval and Diseases Prevention Act, 1848," for the Pre-
vention of epidemic, endemic, and contagious diseases,
we, the General Board of Health, are authorised to
issue such directions and regulations as we shall think
fit for the prevention (as far as possible) or mitigation
of epidemic, endemic, or contagious disease : And whereas
by the said act it is provided that the directions and re-
gulations to be issued as aforesaid shall extend to all
parts or places in which the said provisions of the said
act shall for the time being be in force, under the order
of her Majesty's Privy Council, unless such directions
or regulations shall be expressly confined to some of such
parts or places, and then to such parts or places as in
such directions and regulations shall be specified :
And whereas by an order of her Majesty's most Hon-
ourable Privy Council, bearing date the 15th day of
September, 1853, the said provisions of the said act were
directed to be put in force throughout the whole of
Great Britain for a period of six calendar months thence
next ensuing :

Now, in exercise of the authority vested in us as afore-
said, we, the General Board of Health, do issue the di-
rections and regulations hereinafter contained, to extend
to all parts and places within the several unions, parishes,
and places throughout England and Wales—that is to
Bay :

1. We direct that all the local authorities charged by the
e"
Common Lodging Houses Act, 1851, with the execution
of that act, shall see that the provisions of the said act,
and any act ameniieg the same, are enforced forthwith'.
2. We direct the guardians, overseers, and persons as
aforesaid, to order the clerk to the guardians of any
such union or parish, forthwith upon the publication of
these directions, to make out, from the medical officer's
books, or other sources of information readily obtainable
by him, a list of the places within his union or parish
where cases of cholera, diarrhoea, typhus fever, epidemic,
or any endemic disease, may have lately been frequent;
and to give the list or portions of the list relating to
particular districts to the medical officer of each district
to which it shall relate. And the medical officer of every
union or parish shall visit the places within it, and exa-
mine the houses situate in such places, as to their pre-
sent condition in respect to cleanliness, or as to any
existing predisposing and removable cause of disease
likely to affect the inmates thereof.
3. We direct the guardians, overseers, or persons to
whom these regulations may apply to order the said
medical officer to inquire into the state of the health of
the inhabitants of all such places, and into the state of
health of the children in schools, of the workpeople in
places of work, and of the inmates of common lodging
houses, and where he shall ascertain that any case of
diarrhoea or of any premonitory stages of an epidemic
disease exists to treat or direct the treatment of the same
at once.

4. And such medical officer, where it may be neces-
sary, shall certify in writing to the guardians of his
union or parish all such places as are in a state dangerous
to health, or as need frequent and effectual cleansing by
way of preservation against disease, and such dwelling-
houses as are in a filthy and unwholesome condition,
and all such nuisances and matters injurious to health
as ought to be abated, cleansed, and removed under
these regulations.
5. We direct that all town councils, and other govern-
ing bodies of cities and boroughs, commissioners under
local acts, local boards of health, surveyors and district
or assistant surveyors of highways, road trustees or com-
missioners, county surveyors, and others now by law
intrusted with the care and management of the streets
and public ways and places within the parishes and
places to which these directions and regulations extend,
shall see to the effectual and continued cleansing of all
such of the streets, rows, lanes, mews, courts, alleys,
and passages, and public ways and places, under their
respective care and management, as by the medical
officer of the guardians or others authorised to superin-
tend the execution of these directions and regulations
shall be certified in writing to be in a state dangerous
to health, or to require frequent and effectual cleansing
by way of precaution against disease ; and shall cause
all filth, ordure, and nuisances to be removed therefrom.
6. We direct that where any such streets, rows, lanes,
mews, courts, alleys, and any passages, public ways, or
places to which any houses or tenements adjoin, which
have not been entrusted by law to the care or manage-
ment of any town council, local board of health, com-
missioners, surveyors, trustees, or others, have been
certified in writing by such medical officer as aforesaid
to be in a state dangerous to health, or to require such
frequent and effectual cleansing, every occupier of a
house so adjoining shall keep or cause to be kept suffi-
ciently cleansed every part of the street, row, lane,
mews, court, alley, or passage, way or place, which ad-
joins the house or tenement occupied by him, which
works of cleansing and removal of filth, ordure, and
nuisances required by these directions and regulations
shall be done by effectual washing or otherwise, and
with the use of fluids or substances for preventing the
escape of noxious effluvia during the operation, when
the medical officers of the guardians or others authorised
to superintend the execution of these directions and
regulations shall direct and prescribe the same.
8. We do hereby require the said guardians and over-
seers, and all other persons to whom these present regu-
lations are addressed, by themselves or by their officers
or persons already employed by them, or to be specially
appointed by them in this behalf, to superintend and
see to the execution of these directions and regulations
within their respective unions, parishes or places over
or in which they may legally have jurisdiction.
9. And where it shall appear that, by want or ne-
glect of the town council, city, or borough, local
board of health, commissioners, surveynrs, trustees,
or others, entrusted with the care and management
of streets and public ways and places as aforesaid, or
by reason of poverty of the occuppiers or otherwise,
there is any default or delay in the cleansing of or re-
moving nuisances from any street, row, lane, mews,
court, alley, passage, or public way or place certified
as aforesaid, within any of the said unions, parishes, or
places, we direct the guardians of such union or parish
or the overseers of such parish, and all other persons
having legal authority within such parish or place, to
cause such street, row, lane, mews, court, alley, passage,
way, or place, to be effectually cleansed, and all nui-
sances to be removed therefrom, and to do all acts, mat-
ters, and things necessary for that purpose.
9. We also direct that when and so often as any dwel-
ling house in any part or place to which these directions
and regulations extend is in such a filthy and unwhole-
some condition as to be a nuisance to or injurious to the
health of any person ; or where, upon, adjoining to, or
near any premises, or any part or place, as aforesaid,
there be any foul and offensive drain, ditch, gutter,
privy, cesspool, or ashpit, or any drain, ditch, gutter,
privy, cesspool, or ashpit, kept or constructed so as to
be a nuisance to or injurious to the health of any person ;
or where, upon, adjoining to, or near any such premises,
swine, or any accumulation of dung, manure, offal, filth,
refuse, or other matter or thing is kept, so as to be a
nuisance to or injurious to the health of any person ; or
where, upon, adjoining to, or near any such premises,
being a building used wholly or in part as a dwelling-
house, or being premises underneath any such building,
any animal is kept so as to be a nuisance to or injurious
to the health of any person.
In each of the above recited cases the owner or occu-
pier, and persons having the care or ordering of such
dwelling-house, or of the premises where the nuisance
or matter injurious to the health may be, or where they
by reason of poverty, or otherwise, are unable, then the
town council, local board of health, guardians, com-
missioners, or overseers, shall cleanse, whitewash, or
otherwise purify, as the case may require, such dwelling-
house or building, or abate or remove the nuisance or
matter injurious to health, as aforesaid, with all reason-
able speed after the publication of these our directions
and regulations, or after the nuisance or matter injurious
to health shall have arisen.
10. Wherever there shall not be a town council, local
board of health, or other governing body of a city or
borough or commissioners having jurisdiction for the re-
moval of nuisances, or where such council, local board
of health, governing body, or commissioners shall not
cause to be effectually executed such directions, we
direct the said guardians and overseers, as the case may
be, to visit, from time to time, or cause to be visited,
the several dwellings and places where there may be
ground for believing that necessity will arise for exe-
cuting such directions ; and where, from the poverty of
occupiers or otherwise, there may be default or delay
in the cleansing or purifying of any such dwelling-house,
or the abatement or removal of any such nuisance or
matter injurious to health, and the medical officer, or
other person duly authorised as aforesaid, shall have
certified that the same requires immediate attention, and
where, from want of co-operation of the owners or occu-
piers, there is any default or delay in cleansing any foul
and offensive drain, ditch, watercourse, or gutter into
which several dwellings or tenements may drain, —to
cause such dwelling-houses to be cleansed and purified,
and such drain, ditch, watercourse, or gutter to be fre-
quently and effectually cleansed, and such a nuisance
or matter injurious to health to be abated and removed

respectively,- and to do all acts and provide all matters
and things necessary for that purpose.
11. Every medical officer shall forthwith, upon any
unusual amount of diarrhma, or any case of cholera, or
of typhus, or other epidemic, endemic, or contagious
disease becoming known to him within his district, re-
port the same to the Board of Guardians of his union or

. __ ____ _
parish.
12. On the occurrence of any unusual prevalence of
diarrhcea, or of severe premonitory symptoms of the

disease of cholera, or any Severe epidemic disease,
any school, or place of work, or among the inmates of
any establishment, which shall appear to be overcrowded
the medical officer shall, so soon as he shall be informed
thereof, and if he deem it necessary, order the separation
of the inmates of such school, place of work, or esta-
blishment, and direct such measures to be taken as shall
appear to him to be expedient to prevent the spread of
the disease.

13. And where it shall sufficiently appear to such
guardians, overseers, or others to whom these regula-
tions apply, by certificate of their medical officer, or of
the medical superintending inspector of the General
Board of Health, or otherwise, that cholera, or any
other severe epidemic, endemic, or contagious disease, is
present or imminent in any union, parish, or place, and
that extraordinary medical aid is required for persons
resident within such union, parish, or place attacked or
threatened to be attacked by cholera, or other severe
epidemic, endemic, or contagious disease, or for the dis-
covery and treatment of persons so attacked or threat-
ened, we direct such guardians, overseers, or persons as
aforesaid, to provide, as soon as may be practicable, suf-
ficient medical aid for examination, by house-to-house
visitation, of the state of the inhabitants of the union,
parish, or place, and for medical treatment of persons
found to be threatened or affected with cholera, or such
epidemic disease, or symptoms premonitory thereof, and
for warning and instruction of such persons, and fur the
provision in suitable places of such medicines as may
be required within their respective unions or parishes
for necessitous persons attacked by cholera or by pre-
monitory symptoms, and to make arrangements for the
distribution of notices stating the places where such aid
and medicines shall have been provided.

14. To ensure proper treatment in their own houses
to many of the poorer class, we require the said guar-
dians, where it shall appear to their medical officer, or
to the Medical Superintending Inspector of the General
Board of Health, that such extraordinary aid is requisite,
to provide suitable rooms or places capable of accommo-
dating necessitous oases, to which persons attacked by
cholera, who cannot be properly treated in their own
homes, may be conveyed.
15. We direct the said guardians, where it shall ap-
pear to their medical officer, or to the Medical Super-
intending Inspector of the General Board of Health,
requisite, to provide rooms or places of refuge to which
may be removed the families of such necessitous persons
as have been attacked with cholera, and also such neces-
sitous persons living under the same roof with or in the
vicinity of persons attacked, as the medical officers,
acting under the authority of the said guardians, may
deem it necessary to remove, and to cause the houses,
rooms, or dwellings from which persons may have been
so removed to the houses of refuge to be cleansed and
purified by the owners or persons having the care or or-
dering thereof, or, in their default, by the said guardians.
16. On the occurrence of any case of cholera, or other
epidemic, endemic, or contagious disease, in any room
o.oupied by one family or more, the medical officer of
the union or parish attending the case shall cause to be
removed either the patient or so many of the occupants
of such room as he shall consider would, unless removed,
tend to prevent the recovery of the patient, or endanger
the spreading of the disease.
17. In case of death by cholera, or any other severe
epidemic, endemic, or contagious disease, the last medi-
cal attendant upon the person of the deceased, or, in case
of there having been no medical attendant, the house-
keeper or person present at the death, or who shall be
in charge of the body, shall forthwith notify the fact of
the death to the medical officer of the district charged
with the execution of these orders, for the prevention of
the spread of such disease, and the medical officer shall
give such directions as may appear to him needful in
respect to the care, removal, and the time of interment
of the body, for preventing the communication or spread
of disease. And we hereby authorise and require all
persons to give such information or such assistance to
such medical officer, and to be otherwise aiding him, as
he may need in the execution of these orders.

18. -In the event of the fatal termination of any case
of cholera, or of severe epidemic, endemic, or contagious
disease, in any room occupied as a living or sleeping
room by one family or more, or by numerous persons,
the medical officer of the district, so soon as he shall be
informed of the death, shall cause to be removed as
speedily as may be, the corpse from the same premises,
or, if this be not convenient, shall cause the persons
occupying such rooms to be removed therefrom until the
corpse can be conveniently removed and properly in-
terred.

19. And we direct the said guardians to make arrange-
ments for obtaining daily lists of persons attacked by
cholera or other epidemic disease within their respective
unions or parishes, with the particulars of their cases and
treatment, and for communicating the same daily to the
General Board of Health.

20. And we direct the said guardians, where it may
appear needful, to appoint such additional medical officers
and also to appoint such other officers as may be necea.
sary to execute and superintend the execution of these
regulations, and to publish and circulate, by private
handbills or other means, notices of the provisions of the
said act for the prevention of nuisances, and of our di-
rections, regulations, and instructions, or of such part of
any of them as it may appear to them expedient to make
publicly known.

21. And we direct that in these directions and regu•
lations the words " guardians of the poor" shall mean the
guardians, directors, wardens, governors, or other like
officers having the management of the poor of any union,
parish, or place where the matter requiring the cognis-
ance of any such officers arises ; and the word "parish"
shall include every place where the relief of the poor is
administered by a board of guardians for such place.
Given under our hands and under the seal of the Ge-
neral Board of Health, this 20th day of September, 1853.
• (Signed) EDWIN CHAD WICK.
T. SOUTHWOOD SMITH.

NEWCASTLE.
(From the Board of Health.)
DEATHS IN NEWCASTLE, SEPT. 20.
Cholera
Diarrhoea, lO

No returns from Gateshead. 118
Extra medical visitors have been sent for, and five
gentlemen have proceeded from London to work under
the local authorities.
The tents granted by the Ordnance have arrived, and
50 were pitched last night.

LIVERPOOL.
Several deaths have lately occurred from cholera in
Liverpool. They are chiefly confined, however, to
German emigrants. The Pelican, screw steamer, Cap-
tain Burns, arrived at Liverpool on Tuesday evening
from Rotterdam. She had cholera on board, one
passenger having died of that disease on Sunday last
during her homeward passage. She was immediately
put into quarantine. The other passengers and crew
are in good health.

MANCHESTER.
A meeting of the medical profession of Manchester
was held yesterday morning, having been convened by
Dr. Radford and Mr. J. Turner, surgeon, at the request
of the Sanitary Association, to consider the propriety of
memorialising the authorities of the city on " the pro-
priety of immediately adopting such precautionary and
preventive measures for preserving the health of the
district as the experience of the profession may deem
necessary." The proceedings were private, but we learn
that a large number of the profession attended, inclu-
ding Dr. Radford (who presided), Dr. Watts, Dr.
Wilkinson, Pr. Reed, Mr. Turner, Mr. Wilson,
Mr. Windsor, Mr. Ker, Mr. Hatton, &c. A.
long string of resolutions were agreed to, in which
the attention of the authorities, of the mayor, alder.
men, and town council were directed to the crowded
state of some districts of the city, and the necessity for
further sanitary measures, and suggesting that the
powers of the Board of Health should be put into force.

SHIELDS.

WEDNESDAY FORENOON.—There have been six deaths
from cholera in South Shields since Monday morning—
fouryoung persons, two adults; both the adults were above
50 years of age. We have had no deaths since yester.
day morning, and the town is reported to be generally
healthy. North Shields, with its large seafaring popular,
tion, keeps clear of infection, and there has only been one
death from cholera in that town since the epidemic
broke out. The authorities in both towns are very ao•
tive in promoting the health of the population ; the large
river engine being profitably employed daily in pouring
thousands of tons of salt water into the back lanes of
North Shields. Above 100 men are engaged in that
town in sweetening it and putting it into a good Bald.
tary condition. The water supply in both towns is fair.
The Newcastle Trinity House has appointed proper
medical officers to look after the shipping in the har.
bour. They are healthy, however. The middle classes
of Newcastle are flocking to the watering places on the
coast. The atmosphere is bright and clear to-day,

THE GATESHEAD IRONWORKS.-It appears from as
report made to Mr. Grainger, Superintendent Lapse.*
tor of the General Board of Health, respecting the state
of health of the workmen of Messrs. Crawshay and
Sons, that the total number of men employed is 1,200,
and that the number of deaths was 12. There were 54L
applicants for medical relief, and the result shows that
by proper organisation the disease CAD be almost entirely
subdued.

THE CHOLERA AND THE EDINBURGH MEDICAL STU.
DENTS.—At the request of Mr. Grainger, of the Board.
of Health, and the poor-law guardians of Newcastle,
several of the senior students of Edinburgh University
have gone to Newcast4 to assist the medical men of the
town, who have been working night and day since the
outbreak of the epidemic.

MONUMENT TO JAMES WATT IN El:anti:MOTT —Smoot.
OF ARTS.—The directors of the Watt Institutiea and
Edinburgh School of Arts having resolved to erect
monument to the memory of James Watt, in Adam-
square. the Duke of Buccleuch has presented the direc-
tors with a splendid block of stone, weighing upwards
of ten tons, for the purpose. This stone was brought
from Granton Quarry on Saturday last, having been
drawn by nine horses, and is now deposited in Adam-
square, awaiting the chisel of Mr. Peter Slater, the
sculptor, who has been selected to execute the work.
The monument is to be placed on a pedestal ; the whole
to be about 14 feet in height. Watt is to be represented
in a sitting posture, with a scroll in one hand, and a
pair of compasses in the other ; the composition of the
figure being different from that of the Watt statue either
in Glagow or Greenock, and approaching more nearly
to the elegant monument placed over the grave of the
philosopher at Handsworth, near Birmingham. Mr.
Slater has already completed the model, which, in a few
days, will be placed on a temporary pedestal in the
square, in order to ascertain its effect, and by devoting
his time almost exclusively to the work, he is not with-
out hopes of having the statue finished and inaugurated
on the 19th of January ensuing—the anniversary of
Watt's birthday.