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76
Motor Van for Collecting Articles for Disinfection.
I reported in the early part of the year, that since the London County
Council (General Powers) Act, 1904, came into operation the number of
persons cleansed at the Reception House and the bedding and rooms
disinfected have increased year by year. In 1908 the number of persons
cleansed was 2,294, and during the year 1909, 3,000 persons with rooms
and bedding were similarly treated. This is only the beginning of a
consistent attempt to treat verminous persons and bedding, together with
filthy and verminous homes.
The value of this work, from a public health point of view, is at the
present time beginning to be felt. We have hardly had time accurately
to determine how much the important diminution of infectious disease
that we have seen during the past two years, and the continued lessening
of the death-rate have been due to the cleansing operations which
have been carried on throughout ihe Borough. The dirty homes and
filthy condition of the bedding and clothing can only be improved by
perseverance in the carrying out of the sanitary clauses 19-20 of the
London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1904. During the last
two years the Bathing Station, although extremely meagre in equipment,
has been of great service. The point one desires to lay stress upon is the
insufficient power that is possessed in the matter of collecting and returning
the bedding, which, in the cases of filthy and verminous houses, we find,
must be returned on the same day. Fortunately, during the last two
years, infectious disease has been very low which has enabled us to
collect verminous bedding in the van used for disinfected articles, and in
a hand truck used in the time of the St. George's Vestry. This method
of collecting in a vehicle used for disinfected articles after iufectious
disease, and by hand labour with a truck, must be considered by anyone
acquainted with the work as wholly unsatisfactory.
To cope with the work of the year with the present means of a horsedvehicle,
we shall require a duplication of that portion alone of our
equipment. This would mean a further expenditure of £300 a year.
There is also the large amount of time lost by the present means of
collecting which is the foundation of our difficulties. If we could by
means of a motor van quickly run through the Borough, I am satisfied
that one motor, with a number of movable bodies, could do the whole of
our work at a very little, if any, greater expense than is incurred under
the present slow method of collection.
The Borough Engineer reported that at the present time two disinfecting
vans are in use, one for infected clothing and one for the return