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Disinfection.
Dr. T. Orme Dudfield reports that the new disinfecting station for Kensington, situated at
Wood-lane, Shepherds-bush, was approaching completion; this station has since been opened. Dr.
Reginald Dudfield states that legal difficulties arising from the conditions of purchase led to the
abandonment of the intention to provide a disinfecting station for Paddington on land in Kensal-road,
in rear of the public baths, and that a communication had been addressed to the Kensington Borough
Council enquiring whether the new station in Wood-lane could be used for the purposes of Paddington.
The disinfecting station belonging to the City Corporation had been destroyed by fire in 1904
and Dr. Collingridge reports that the rebuilding was nearly completed. In Bermondsey a modern
machine was removed from Bull Head Dock to the Neckinger depot and reinstated on the piece of land
between the baths and wash-houses and the dust destructor. A new disinfecting station for Wandsworth
has been provided in that district. It has been decided to provide a small laundry in connection
with the Battersea disinfecting station, and the Local Government Board has been asked to
sanction a loan for this purpose; Dr. McCleary states that the cost of disinfection in Battersea in 1905
was £1,091 0s. 3d., whereas the cost, at the charges formerly made by a contractor, would have been
£2,267 12s. 6d., showing a saving of £1,176 12s. 6d. through the borough council doing the disinfection
itself, and the cost of the provision of the station has already almost been covered. Dr. Jackson also
states that the cost of disinfection in Fulham at the Borough Council's station was in 1905 £1,052,
including £105 for interest and £216 for repayment of principal. The average cost during the three
preceding years when the work was done by a contractor was £1,257 per annum, and at that time
there was no disinfection after measles or tuberculosis as in 1905.
The use of formic aldehyde or formaline for the purposes of disinfection is increasing and
Dr. Harris writes that this has effected a saving of some £500 in a year in Islington. Dr.
Alexander reports that the Borough Council of Poplar had under consideration the proposal to
manufacture " electrolysed salt water" for disinfection in substitution for disinfectants used in
the district.
Shelters.
The use of shelters for the accommodation of persons during the disinfection of their houses
has been much less during the last year owing, on the one hand, to the smaller prevalence of infectious
disease in London and especially of small-pox, and on the other, to the adoption of methods of disinfection
which have not involved the closing of the rooms during the night time. The last has
been the greater factor, leading in some districts to disuse of the shelter. Thus it is
stated in the annual reports that in 1905 the shelters were not used in Paddington, Hampstead,
Lambeth, Camberwell, Deptford, Greenwich, or Woolwich. In other districts the shelters accom-