Catalogue description Folios 300-302. To: The General Board of Health. From: Percy Hockin, Dartmouth...

Folios 300-302.

To: The General Board of Health.

From: Percy Hockin, Dartmouth [Devonshire].

Letter advising that he has heard from Totnes that Edward Prettejohn, a cider merchant residing in the neighbourhood of Kingsbridge, fell victim to cholera in London 'after an illness of a few hours', and that his corpse was taken from London to Loddiswell for internment and rested on the platform of Totnes Station for 5 hours. Hockins submits that 'prompt measures should be taken to prevent the recurrence of what I cannot term otherwise than an offence against the public health'. He further suggests the propriety of the General Board calling on the various Boards of Guardians, Town Councils, Improvement Commissioners and other local bodies, to make a report to them 'of the proceedings they have taken for the removal of nuisances and prevention of diseases and for the carrying out of sanitary measures within their respective jurisdictions'. Hockin adds that he is a member of the Totnes Board of Guardians, and Chairman of a Sanitary Committee appointed by the said Board for a district comprising the parishes of Saint Saviours, Saint Peter, Townstal, and the adjoining parishes of Kingswear and Dittisham. He further states that he is also a member of the Dartmouth Improvement Commissioners and the Dartmouth Town Council, and can state from experience that these bodies 'require a great deal of stirring to cause them to move in sanitary measures'. He encloses a notice of a meeting of the Dartmouth Improvement Commissioners to be held on 9 October for the purpose of taking into consideration 'the propriety of appointing a Committee to carry out the provisions of the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act 1848, and the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Amendment Act 1849, and the directions and regulations of the General Board of Health'.