“They would never have the laws of health properly given effect to, until they asserted the independence of the Health Officers.”
Nor were the Sanitary Inspectors as efficient as they might have been, though there had been a great improvement in the class of man appointed.
The Chief Sanitary Inspector for Clerkenwell[158] reported:—
“The two men (in Clerkenwell) are not very active. It is the greatest trouble I have to get the men to do their duty.”
“The Sanitary Inspectors have not always shown as much zeal and interest as they might have done, but lately they have improved…. It is openly talked about in a good many districts in London that a system of bribing goes on.”[159]
But those who were energetic were also discouraged by the same pressure which damped some of the energies of the Medical Officers of Health.
The Medical Officer of Health for Fulham wrote, in 1884:—
“So many are the vested interests that Sanitary Officers are obliged in the performance of their duty to interfere with, that they must be prepared to meet with injustice and opposition in almost all directions. It is not at all surprising that the dwellings of the poor in London should be in an insanitary condition seeing the great obstacles public sanitary officers have in the performance of their duties.”
And yet there were many who did their work well, and who did much to improve the conditions of living of those who were under their care or charge; and did it in the face of many obstacles and much discouragement, and of all the opposition that vested interests could bring to bear against them.