Lecture to Sanitary Officers

THE Course of Lectures, of which this is the first, has been arranged by the County Council with the object of affording to the Sanitary Inspectors of the County an opportunity for preparing themselves to pass an examination so as to qualify them to obtain a certificate of competency in their duties.In consequence of my position as Chairman of the Sanitary Committee of the County COll17C11, I have been requested to give the opening Lecture, and I have accepted this proposal, because I thought that I should thereby have the opportunity of placing before the Inspectors a succinct view of the responsibilities which attach to their position, and of the duties which they have to perform.The laws which regulate the health of the community may be said to date from the accession of Queen Victoria.It was only at the beginning of the Queen's reign that the registration of births and deaths came into operation, tllus affording the necessary data for ascertaining the relative inten- sity of epidemic diseases, and furnishing a basis for a scientific examination of-tbe causes of the diseases.In 1839 disease was as prevalent in the rural villages as it was in the most filthy and crowded districts and towns; and the Poor Law Com- missioners were directed to enquire into and report upon the