THE PUBLIC HEALTH
No. I—DIRECTIONS AND GENERAL REGULATIONS OF THE GENERAL BOARD OF HEALTH
To the guardians of the; poor of the several unions and parishes named in the schedules hereunto annexed;
To the councils and other governing bodies of cities and boroughs, commissioners under local Acts, the surveyors of highways, their deputies and assistants, the trustees, county surveyors, and others, by law entrusted with the care and management of the streets and public ways and places within the said unions and parishes
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 Removal and Diseases Prevention Act, 1848," for the prevention of epidemic, endemic, and contagious diseases, and by virtue of an order of the Lords of her Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council, bearing date the 28th day of Sept., 1848, directing that the said provisions of the said Act be put in force throughout the whole of Great Britain, we, the General Board of Health, are authorised to issue such directions and regulations as the said Board shall think fit for the prevention, as far possible, or mitigation of epidemic, endemic, or contagious diseases; and whereas by the said Act it is provided, that the directions and regulations 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 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:
Now, in exercise of the authority vested in us aforesaid, we the General Board of Health, do issue the directions and regulations hereinafter contained, to extend to all parts and places within the several unions and parishes named in the schedules hereunto annexed, and to all extra-parochial places adjoining to such unions and parishes, viz. :—
I. We direct that all councils and other governing bodies of cities and boroughs, commissioners under local Acts, surveyors, and district or assistant surveyors of highways, trustees, county surveyors, and others, by law entrusted with the care and management of the streets and public ways and places within the parts or places to which these directions and regulations extend, shall once, at least, in every twenty-four hours effectually cleanse 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 superintend the execution of this direction and regulation, 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 remove all filth, ordure, and nuisances therefrom.
II. And 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 management of any council commissioners, 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, we direct that every occupier of a house or tenement so adjoining, shall keep, or cause to be kept, sufficiently cleansed, at least once in every twenty-four hours, such part of the street, row, lane, mews, court, alley, or passage, way, or place as adjoins the house or tenement occupied by him.
And we direct that all such works of cleansing and removal of filth, ordure, and nuisances as are required by these directions and regulations, shall be done in such manner by effectual washing or otherwise, and with the use of such fluids or substances for preventing the escape of noxious effluvia during the operation, as the medical officer of the guardians or others authorised to superintend the execution of these directions and regulations shall think necessary, and shall direct.
III. We do hereby authorise and require the guardians of the said unions and parishes, by themselves or by their officers or persons employed under them in the administration of the laws for the relief of the poor, or by officers or persons specially appointed in this behalf, to superintend and see to the execution of the foregoing directions and regulations within their respective unions and parishes, and in any extra-parochial places adjoining thereto respectively.
IV. And further, where it shall appear that by want or neglect of the council of any city or borough, commissioners, surveyors, trustees, or others entrusted with the care and management as aforesaid, or by reason of poverty of the occupiers or otherwise, there may be any default or delay in the cleansing or of removing nuisances from any street, row, lane, mews, court, alley, passage, or public way or place, certified as aforesaid, within any of the said unions and parishes, or any extra-parochial place adjoining thereto, we authorise and require the guardians of such union or parish to cause such street, row, lane, mews, court, alley, passage, way, or place to be effectually cleansed, and all nuisances to be removed therefrom, and to do all acts, matters, and things necessary for that purpose.
V. We also direct as follows :—
That, when, and so often as any dwelling house in any part place to which these directions and regulations extend, is in such a filthy and unwholesome condition as to be a nuisance to or injurious to the health of any person, or, where upon any premises, or any part or place as aforesaid, there is any foul and offensive 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 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 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 to be a nuisance or injurious to the health of any person:
In each of the above recited cases, the owner or occupier, and persons having the care or ordering of such dwelling-house, or of the premises where the nuisance or matter injurious to health may be, 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 reasonable speed after the publication of these our directions and regulations, or after the nuisance or matter injurious to health shall have arisen.
VI. In case, by reason of poverty or otherwise, the occupier of any such dwelling-house or premises is unable to perform any works required by these directions or regulations, such occupier shall give notice of such his inability to the guardians of the union or parish comprising the place wherein the premises shall be situated.
VII. We authorise and require the guardians aforesaid, by themselves or by officers by them authorised in this behalf.
To see to the execution of the directions hereinbefore contained for the cleansing and purifying of dwelling-houses, and for the abatement and removal of nuisances and matters injurious to health (in every case in which there shall not be a council or other governing body of a city or borough, or commissioners having jurisdiction for the removal of nuisances, or where such council, governing body, or commissioners, shall not cause to be effectually executed such directions); and for that purpose
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 executing such directions.
VIII. And in every case in which, from the poverty of occupiers or otherwise, there may be default or delay in the cleansing or purifying of any such dwelling-house, or in 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 certify that the same requires immediate attention.
We authorise and require such guardians to cause such dwelling-houses to cleansed and purified, and such drain, ditch, watercourse, or gutter, to be frequently and effectually cleansed, and such 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.
IX. And we do further authorise and require the guardians to direct their clerk to make out from the register of deaths, or from the district medical relief books, from any public books or other sources from which information mar be obtained within the union or parish, a list of places where epidemic, endemic, and contagious diseases have of late been frequent.
X. And we authorise and require such guardians to cause the medical officers employed by them, or specially appointed for the purpose, to visit the places, of which a list shall be made out as aforesaid, and all such neighbouring and other places within such union or parish, as shall appear to such medical officers (from being under like circumstances with the places included in such list or otherwise) to require visitation or examination.
XI. And each such medical officer shall, where it may necessary, certify in writing to the Board of Guardians, and to the surveyors, trustees, occupiers, or others required to execute these directions and regulations, all such places as are in a state dangerous to health, or 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 ought to be abated, cleansed, and removed under these regulations.
XII. And each such medical officer shall forthwith, upon any case of cholera, or of typhus, or other epidemic, endemic, and contagious diseases becoming known to him within the parish, union, or district under his visitation, report the same to the Board of Guardians.
XIII. And we do hereby authorise and 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 necessary to execute and superintend the execution of these regulations, and to publish and circulate by printed hand bills, or other means, notices of the provisions of the said Act, for the prevention of nuisances, and of our regulations and instructions, or of such part of any of them, as it may appear desirable to make publicly known.
XIV. And we hereby direct, that in these directions and regulations, the words "Guardians of the Poor," shall mean the guardians, directors, wardens, governors, or other like officers, having the management of the poor for any union, parish, or place where the matter requiring the cognisance 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.
I. Schedule, containing the names of the Unions to which the present directions and regulations apply : ..., Alresford, Alton, Andover, Basingstoke, Catherington, Christchurch, Drayton, Droxford, Fareham, Faringdon, Fordingbridge, Hambledon, Hartley Wintney, Havant, Kingsclere, Lymington, New Forest, Petersfield, Portsea Island, Ringwood, Romsey, Southampton, Stockbridge, Whitchurch (Southampton), Isle of Wight, Winchester New (Only Hants towns shown)
Given under our hands and under the seal of the General Board of Health, this 3d day of November, 1848,
CARLISLE
EDWIN CHADWICK
T. SOUTHWOOD SMITH