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8
Disinfection after Infectious Disease.
During the year 109 rooms and their contents were disinfected
by your Contractor, Mr. W. G. Lacy, at a cost of £118 lis. 6d.
The London County Council on 9th March, 1893, forwarded to
your Vestry copies of a report relative to the disinfection and
destruction of infected articles, stating they are of opinion in order
that the work of disinfection may be under proper supervision, it
should be effected on premises belonging to the Vestry, and
expressing the hope that the Vestry will provide a steam disinfector,
and dispense with the employment of a contractor.
This recommendation of the London County Council was by the
request of the Public Health Committee referred to me to report
upon, which I did in a letter addressed to the Committee as
follows:—
“To the Public Health Committee of the Vestry of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
" Gentlemen,
" In accordance with your request that I should make a
statement in writing in reference to the communication of the
Loudon County Council addressed to the Vestry, respecting the
necessity of providing premises of our own for the purpose of
disinfection after infectious disease, I beg to report as follows:—
" When this subject was first brought under the notice of your
Committee, I pointed out the impossibility of securing a site in a
parish like ours for such a purpose, and even if such a site were
secured, the freeholders and the residents in the vicinity would be
up in arms, and would very likely land us into a costly litigation.
As an alternative, it was suggested by your Committee, that we
might ask the Strand Board of Works to allow us to combine with
them in the use of their disinfecting premises, I accordingly
communicated with the Surveyor of the Strand Board of Works
upon the subject, and the reply I received was not of an encouraging
nature.