The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-20 00:00:00

THE PORT QF LONDON.

It is a serange fact that as yet no sanitary super-
vision is exercise I with respect to the large floating
population livii,g on the Thames between London-
b. idge and Woolwich. When the last epidemic of
cholera occurred every district in London, being
provided with a medical officer of health, at once
enlarged its sanitary machinery, and was able to
provide efficient means for preventing and coping
with the disease. But, as no such officer existed to pro-
vide for the health of the floating population, the
work of inspection was voluntarily undertaken by the
Dreadnought authorities, and much disease was
prevented. The provisions of the Merchant Ship-
ping Act of 1867, which provide for the better
accommodation of seamen on board ship, and for
the maintenance of health at sea, do not appear to
have effected much improvement in the condition of
coasting vessels trading between London and other
ports, and a series of reports which have lately ap-
peared in the British illedicul Journal gives some
very unsatisfactory details in connection with this
subject. It is shown that dirt and dislomfort of
every kind still prevail in the forecastles of most
cf the smaller vessels ; that there is frequently
no ventilation at all except by means of the hatch-
ways ; that sailors are often left for several days in
bunks ill with infectious disirders, thus endanger-
ing the health of the crews of vess.2ls lying in the
same tier, as well as that of the shore population.
It is, indeed, traditionally supposed that for sani-
tary purposes the river is parcelled out into longi-
tudinal bits of districts, corresponding to those
districts through which it flows ; so that presum-
ably, no less than eleven medical officers of health
are concerned in the supervision of the floating
population between London-bridge and Wool-
wich. But there is no inspection except in the
city district, which extends only from the Temple
to the Tower, and that on the north side only, and
over which a sanitary inspector has been appointed
the city medical officer of health. In the present
state of the law this inspection of the city dis-
trict is almost useless, for any shipmaster who
receives orders from the inspector may move
into another part of the river and evade
them altogether. The Board of Conservancy, to
whom the entire management of the river is now
entrusted; have no officer of health, and the report
above quoted contends that its members should be
empowered by the Board of Trade to appoint an
inspector, who would communicate to them any
breaches of the law as to cubical space for the
crews of ships, see that sick sailors were sent at
once to hospitals, that the forecastles and cabins were
cleaned and ventilated, and that hygienic measures,
as in the case of houses in the metropolitan dis-
tricts, were carried out on board all vessels moored
in the port. Such a .plan would " afford to the
Board of Trade a surety that certain clauses of the
Duke of Richmond's Act were fully and faithfully
carried out; to the shipowner an assurance that his
crews were kept in good working order ; to the
shipmaster a valuable aid to discipline when his
vessel is in port ; and to the sailor a material gua-
rantee that the legislative enactments created for
his benefit were applied with constancy and preci-

sion."