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As a comment upon this decision I give the following account,
taken from the Daily Mail, of January 17th, 1898, of the death of
two persons suffocated in a barge by the gases arising from spent
lime with which the barge was laden.
"A tragedy of an extraordinary nature was discovered at Hanwell on
Saturday.
"Early in the morning the dead bodies of a man and woman were found
in the cabin of the barge 'Azalea,' which had been moored all night in the
canal near Hanwell. The body of the man was subsequently identified as
that of John Sumpter, aged 33, and the women as Jane Merritt, aged 36,
both of no fixed abode.
"The barge was laden with gas lime, and was deserted at night by all the
bargemen working it. It is supposed that Sumpter got into the barge with
the woman the previous evening unperceived.
"Dr. Hope, who examined the bodies, gave it as his opinion that death
was due to suffocation by the fumes of the gas lime."
Cases of infectious disease were notified in 2,169 houses. These
were disinfected, cleansed, and the house drains tested, and notice
served to abate any insanitary condition found. The rooms cleansed
numbered 757 and the number of families for whom accommodation
has been provided, under sec. 60 (4), while their homes were being
disinfected, was 9.
Articles seized unfit for Food.—Five-and-a-half hundred
weight of fish, 15¾ cwt. of fruit and vegetables, 13½ cwt. of meat,
9 cwt. of margarine, and 5 cases of eggs were seized by the sanitary
inspectors and brought before a magistrate, who condemned and
ordered their destruction. We are still in great need of a furnace
for destroying condemned food and other offensive articles. I have
either to rely upon the kindness of neighbouring districts to get rid
of bad food or dead animals, or to bury the same in land away from
human habitation.
Cow-sheds and Slaughter-houses.—All of these in the
district were inspected and visited by the Public Health Committee
during the year. Few defects were found on inspection, several of