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of them being under 20 tons. Last year 1,085 rooms in
1,015 houses were disinfected by your Vestry's staff, irrespective
of those (a diminishing number) disinfected by the contractor
in his private capacity. In 1892 the number of rooms
disinfected free of cost was 683, compared with 364 in 1891.
Duties of Sanitary Authorities with respect to
Disinfection.—In the course of a debate in your Vestry last
year, a question having been raised, whether the costs of disinfection
should be defrayed by the Sanitary Authority, in the
case of occupiers of houses in a position to defray the same ? I
thought it desirable to offer some observations, explanatory
of the law, and of our practice, in regard thereto. The report
was as follows:—
"Section 60 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, reads as
follows:—
(1) Where the Medical Officer of Health of any sanitary authority, or any
other legally qualified medical practitioner, certifies that the cleansing
and disinfecting of any house, or part thereof, and of any articles
therein likely to retain infection, or the destruction of such articles,
would tend to prevent or check any dangerous or infectious disease, the
sanitary authority shall serve notice on the master, or, where the house
or part is unoccupied, on the owner, of such house or part, that the
same and any such articles therein, will be cleansed aud disinfected or
(as regards the articles) destroyed, by the sanitary authority, unless he
informs the sanitary authority within twenty-four hours from the receipt
of the notice, that he will cleanse and disinfect the house or part, and
any such articles, or destroy such articles, to the satisfaction of the
Medical Officer of Health, or of any legally qualified medical practitioner,
within a time fixed in the notice.
(2) If either—
(a) Within twenty-four hours from the receipt of the notice, the
person on whom the notice is served does not inform the
sanitary authority, as aforesaid, or
(b) Having so informed the sanitary authority, he fails to have the
house or part thereof, and any such articles, disinfected, or
such articles destroyed as aforesaid, within the time fixed in
the notice, or
(c) The master or owner without such notice gives his consent,
the house, or part, and articles, shall be cleansed and disinfected, or
such articles destroyed, by the officers and at the cost of the sanitary
authority, under the superintendence of the Medical Officer of Health.
(3) For the purpose of carrying into effect this section the sanitary authority
may enter by day on any premises.