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unwholesome has been condemned and destroyed, but it has not been
found necessary to take any proceedings for the wilful sale or exposure
for sale of unsound food. The Vestry has sanctioned the erection of a
small crematorium for the destruction of unsound food, and this would
prove a very great advantage to the sanitary administration of the
parish. It has, however, unfortunately not been possible to acquire a
suitable site for its erection.
Disinfection. —The Washington Lyon high pressure steam disinfector
continues to give every satisfaction, and its upkeep is most inexpensive.
The station building, however, is unsatisfactory, owing to the constant
settlement, which continues to develope large cracks and fissures in the
walls. It is hardly possible to doubt that the structure would have
collapsed before now, if it had not been for the iron tyes introduced
some years ago. Mr. Davis, the assistant in the department, now
carries out the steam disinfections, which is of great advantage in
relieving the district inspectors of work taking them away from their
other duties. During the past year in the home district, 62 rooms
occupied by consumptives were disinfected after the death of the patient,
and 14 in Kensal Town, in addition to the 665 premises disinfected for
notifiable infectious diseases.
Water-supply.—The whole of the home district now has a constant
supply of water. In 1891 only 23 percent, of the houses in the district
of the Chelsea Waterworks had a constant supply of water. During
the years the conversion from intermittent to constant supply was
proceeding, no steps were taken to do away with existing cisterns for
the storage of water, consequently should at any time there be a scarcity
of water in the district similar to that experienced of recent years in the
district of the East London Company—a not impossible contingency
having in view the abnormally low condition of the Thames during the
past three summers, and the continually increasing amount of water
abstracted by the Companies—there will be no such shortness of water
with all its discomforts and evils as characterised the water famines in
East London, as every house in Chelsea will have a cistern for the
storage of water more or less adequate to the needs of the hours when
the water is turned off from the main. It is much, however, to be
desired that house owners would fix a screw-down draw-off tap on the
rising main of every house, so that the occupier could draw his drinking
water straight from the main, and be relieved of the necessity of
drinking stored water.
During the year a daily examination of the water drawn from the
main has been made at the Town Hall, as regards its temperature and
appearance, in a 2-ft. tube. The highest temperature attained during
the year was 73° F. on the 2nd of August, and the lowest temperature
38.5° F. on the 28th of December. The temperature of the water was
70° F., or over, between the 12th July and the 12th August, and during
the remainder of August was never less than 69° F. During 1898 the
temperature of the water only exceeded 70° F. between the 21st and
25th of August, and did not exceed 69° F. for more than 10 days, so
that in the past year the summer temperature of the water appears to
have been abnormally high. The water was generally of good colour and
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