English Sanitary Institutions. By Sir John Simon, K.C.B. (Cassell and
Co.)—It may be as well to recall the services of the author of this voliime in the department of the Public Health. He was Officer of Health for the City of London, 1848-1855; Medical Officer to the General Board of Health, 1855-1858; Medical Officer to the Privy Council, 1858-1876; performing for the last five years' time the same duties for the Local Government Board. No one, therefore, could be a more competent authority on the sanitary practice for the last forty years and more. A very re- markable record it is, this history of the sanitary legislation of the present reign, to pass over the earlier chapters. What a history of incompetence and blundering it is, in one respect, and, at the same time, of determined and intelligent effort in another ! We have at least tried to be cleaner than our neigh- bours, and though this is not much to boast of, have suc- ceeded; but how much remains to be done ! We have remedied some of the outrageous follies of past times. It is no longer the case, as it was less than thirty years ago, that the pig- styes are under one authority, and the privies under another ; but how much remains to be done ! Any one may see this who will read Sir John Simon's last chapter, in which he sums up the whole matter : "Average English life is but imperfectly educated in standards of cleanliness." What could be a more convincing proof than what the Lancet commissioner discovered about the Henley Regatta not more than five years ago ? Here were "thousands of holiday-makers, using the river as their latrine and midden-stead, and with their house-boats purposely closet-piped into it." The Henley authorities, of course, knew all about it, but did not think it worth while to interfere. The occupiers of the house-boats knew that they were defiling the water-supply of a great part of London, but were too careless and selfish to let that knowledge influence them. The evil has been to some measure abated, though we fancy that house-boats are still a source of great evil; but why was it left to a, private person to discover and denounce it ? And was any one punished for it? "For more than twenty years," writes our
author, "I have endeavoured to enforce two principles criminal responsibility for whatsoever wilful acts or neglects gravely injure, or gravely endanger, the public health and pecuniary compensation to those harmed." Sir John Simon has done well to supplement his great public services with this valuable book.
Previous page
