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in visiting cases of measles, whooping cough and consumption. The work of the two health visitors
consists in visiting mothers of the poorer class and advising them in the care and management of
their infants. A summary of the work of the sanitary inspectors will be found in Table VII.,
Appendix, p. 71.
DISINFECTION
Bedding is disinfected at the Council's disinfecting station by exposure to steam under a
pressure varying between 15 and 18 lbs. for 20 minutes. Soiled linen is disinfected by boiling
under a pressure of 10 lbs. for ten minutes in the rotary washing machine. Cloth stuffs, dresses, etc.,.
are disinfected by formalin vapour in the heated chamber of the steam disinfector. A formalin
cupboard has been ordered by the Public Health Committee to be constructed for the disinfection
by formalin of leather, furs and other articles which cannot be exposed to high temperatures.
Rooms are disinfected by fumigation with the formalin vapour generated by the volatilisation of
30 tablets of paraform. Thirty tablets are guaranteed by the makers to produce 29 grammes of
gaseous formaldehyde, an amount of vapour which is sufficient to disinfect a room of 1,000 c.ft.
Rooms vacated by consumptive persons are first sprayed with per cent, solut'on of formic aldehyde
(formalin 2 ounces to 1 gallon of water), and then sealed and fumigated with formalin vapour.
The following table shows the number of disinfections carried out for various diseases during
the year:—

The total number of articles disinfected was 13,847 ; the total weight of the articles dealt with
was 33 tons 5 cwt. 2 qrs. 23 lbs.
With few exceptions the disinfected articles were also cleansed, and in a certain number of
instances washing of infected articles of clothing, etc., was undertaken, week by week,
for the convenience of householders, during the continuance of infectious disease treated at home;
a charge being made for the service: 1,118 rooms in 878 houses were disinfected in the course of
the year.
VERMINOUS PERSONS
The medical inspection of school children has revealed the fact that the number of verminous
persons in the Borough of Kensington is very much in excess of the number that might have been
anticipated, and probably attains amongst children alone, who are by no means always of the
poorest class, a figure which does not fall short of 1,000. For a proper appreciation of the position
it must be clearly understood that many of these children are verminous through no fault of
their parents, and, further, that in any case when once they have become infested it is absolutely
impossible for the parents to rid their children's bodies and clothes of lice without the use of a
disinfecting station.