The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1901-07-17 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

UNEEDA PILL.  ireedom prevails in respect to this and typhus. Of suicides there were 3 in Wallasey district and 1 at Hoylake and Wet Kirby. As to density of population, it appears that in Wallasey there are 15.25 persons to the acre, in Hoylake and West Kirby 5.62, in Nestou and Parkgate 1.28, in Lower 13ebington 8.06, in Higher Bebington 2.36, in Bromborough 1.18, and in rural Wirrel 0.47. At first sight it seems odd that in Bromborough, with its 1.18 persons to the acre, there should have been two caste of overcrowding. Regarding the alleged association of shell-fish with enteric, the Medical Officer writes: "In the Wallasey Report is • circamstantial account of an outbreak of enteric fever traced to polluted oysters. In the autusnn several persons who had attended a banquet and partaken of oysters had enteric fever, and one died from the disease; other persons who had also partaken of the oysters were made seriously ill, suffering from gastric and intestinal disorder. On inquiry it was found that the oysters were dredged from beds la Dublin Bay, near which a large portion of the sewage of Dublin is said to be discharged. . . Then a report came from Liverpool that typhoid fever there had been traced to eating shell-fish (especially mussels and cocsles) gathered on the Mersey shore, particularly about New Brighton. Further inquiries were made. and the Medical Officer . of Health was able to instance two cases where enteric fever followed the eating of such shell-fish gathered close to Egremont Ferry and eaten raw. Onsi of these cases proved fatal. Notice boards were accordingly put up along the shore, warning people that the gathering of shell-fish between Seacombe Ferry and the rocks known as the 'Red Noses' was not permitted." In the Wallasey Report there are also, we are told, same interesting notes of an outbreak of enteric fever associated with • certain milk supply. The dairy and the farm whence the milk came were examined, without throwing any light on the cause of the outbreak, but on examining the sewer into which the dairy drained, it was found that just below the spot where the drains from the dairy entered the pipes had sunk, causing a partial block in the sewer. The Surveyor was appealed to, and by May 12th this sewer was reconstructed. "Whether in some way contaminated gas found its way into the dairy so as to pollute the milk it is impossible to say, but certain it is that from the time the sewer was completed very few cases of typhoid fever derived from this dairy occurred, and only one occurred after June Bth." In all 22 cases supplied with milk from this dairy were reported in the first six months of 1900. Enteric fever appeared in another part of Wallasey in the autumn, wiz., in Wheatlandlane and Oakdale, where the same fever has frequently occurred before. At Wheatlandlane, the Surveyor admitted "that there was . no doubt the sewers were very old and defective, allowing much deposit to lie in them." Nothing has as yet been done, beyond cutting off the Wheatland-lane sewer from the dock sewer us Birkenhead-road, by • large syphei trap, but the Surveyor promisee soon to begin the much-needed work of re-construe-1 tion. At Oakdale it was found "that tise intercepting sewer carrying off the drainage ' from this district had become completely blocked owing to the collapse of a portion of 'the sewer at a point where some pipes had got broken. The effect of this was to dam back both sewage and sewer gas along the sewer, entering above dui block, and to retain infected material until the block was cleared." The work of re-construction here the Surveyor undertakes to see carried out during 1901. It is also mentioned that in Wallasey all cases of infectious disease are notified to the Free Public Library, and during 1900 a special chamber was provided in which infected books have been since disinfected by formic aideh,yde. Many valuable books have been disinfected in this apparatus, and in no instance has damage been done. With reference to the prevalence of peripheral neuritis, the Medical Officer &Wes t:sere have been some cases,number notalvon, in Leath= and Neston. Be mentisas that one patient from the Nantwich Rural District, was a teetotaller, and the caned of neuritis was probably exposure to cold. Thereis much else in the volume of interest relating to sewage, workmen's dwellings, water supply, food adniteration, and, not the least, the treatment of infante, in which minute directions as to feeding, washing, clothing and training are given by Dr. Vacher, bioh it may be hoped, in the interest of the rising! generation, the mothers of Wirral will study and adopt.  B.P. .R. B.P. R. 81t6J.L PRIOR ! WOK MIEDYI Tom. Sim