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modated the following number of persons Fulham 3, Chelsea 85, Westminster 6, St. Marylebone
7, St. Pancras 39, Islington 11, Hackney 93, Holborn 3, Finsbury 61, City of London 8, Shoreditch
20, Bethnal-green 21, Stepney 252, Southwark 1,047, Bermondsey 90, Battersea 33, Wandsworth 9
and Lewisham 1.
Mortuaries.
The sufficiency of the accommodation provided in mortuaries has been under the consideration
of some of the sanitary authorities during 1905. A "Chapel of Rest for the Dead" has been erected in
Avondale-park, Kensington, at a cost of £1,300, and Dr. T. Orme Dudfield states that 56 bodies were
received into it during the year. The Public Health Committee of the Westminster City Council
recommended that some of the existing mortuaries should be improved, with a view to giving encouragement
to their use. Dr. Collingridge reports that the work of restoration or rebuilding of the
mortuary of the City, which had been destroyed by fire, was almost completed. In Poplar the provision
of suitable accommodation was under consideration and the County Council agreed with the
Borough Council of Poplar in respect of the erection of a mortuary and coroner's court. The Lambeth
Borough Council decided to improve and extend the mortuary in High-street, Lambeth and the
Borough Council of Wandsworth signed the contract for the purchase of land and issued advertisements
for designs for a mortuarv and coroner's court.

The Cleansing of Persons Act.
The Cleansing of Persons Act was passed in 1897. The Act empowers every sanitary authority
"when in their discretion they see fit, to permit any person who shall apply to the said authority, on
the ground that he is infested with vermin, to have the use, free of charge, of the apparatus (if any)
which the authority possess for the cleansing of the person and his clothing from vermin." In the
beginning of 1905 Dr, Wauktyn inquired on behalf of the County Council concerning the provisions
which London sanitary authorities had made for the cleansing of persons, and the Public Health
Committee reported to the Council in March as follows :—
1.—We have had under consideration a report by the medical officer presenting a report by Dr. Wanklyn oa
the administration in London of the Cleansing of Persons Act, 1897,
The provisions of the Act are as follows—
"(1) Any local authority shall have the power, when in their discretion they shall see fit, to permit any person
who shall apply to the said authority, on the ground that he is infested with vermin, to have the use, free of
charge, of the apparatus (if any) which the authority possess for cleansing the person and his clothing from
vermin. The use of such apparatus shall not be considered to be parochial relief or charitable allowance to
the person using the same, or to the parent of such person, and no such person or parent shall by reason
thereof be deprived of any right or privilege or be subject to any disqualification or disability.
"Local authorities may expend any reasonable sum on buildings, appliances and attendants that may
be required for the carrying out of this Act, and any expenses for these purposes may be defrayed out of
any rate or fund applicable by the authority for general sanitary purposes, or for the relief of the poor.
"(2) In this Act, 'local authority' means in England the council of any county borough, the district council
of any district, any board of guardians, and in the county of London any sanitary authority as defined in
the Public Health (London) Act, 1891."
The application of the Act is permissive, and, except in the Metropolitan Boroughs of Hackney, St. Marylebone
and St. Pancras the action, if any, taken by Metropolitan Borough Councils has only been such as would enable the
shelter provided for the reception of persons during the disinfection of their houses to be utilised for the purpose
of the cleansing of persons, or else an arrangement has been made with the Board of Guardians for persons to be
cleansed in the baths of the casual wards, their clothes being disinfected in the ovens used for the disinfection of
the clothes of the inmates of these wards:
In each of the three metropolitan boroughs mentioned above, a separate station has been provided for the
cleansing of persons and, as regards disinfection, the arrangement in the Metropolitan boroughs of St. Pancras and
Hackney, is that the apparatus used for the disinfection of clothes is utilised for the purposes of the Act, whilst in
St. Marylebone the disinfecting chamber for the cleansing of persons is distinct from that used for other purposes.
By direction of the St. Marylebone and St. Pancras Borough Councils, handbills or notices, to the effect that