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83
CLEANSING OF PERSONS ACT, 1897.
This Act gives power to the sanitary authority to permit any person infested with vermin to
have the use of the apparatus which the authority may have provided for cleansing the body and
clothing, and authorises expenditure on buildings, appliances, and attendants that may be required
for the carrying out of the Act. Nominal effect was given to the Act soon after it passed, by an
arrangement made by the late Vestry with the Guardians, whereby cleansing and disinfecting apparatus
at the able-bodied workhouse, Mary-place, in the Potteries, was made available, on payment of a
small fee—an unsatisfactory arrangement which is still in force. Little use has been made of the
apparatus, owing possibly to ignorance of the arrangement on the part of the poor intended to be
benefited, and probably, to some extent, owing to the locality and ownership of the apparatus. In
the Borough of St. Marylebone, a proper equipment having been provided, several thousand
cleansing operations are carried out in the course of the year; much to the comfort, doubtless, of
dirty and verminous persons, who, for the most part, come from an adjacent Salvation Army
Shelter.
UNDERGROUND ROOMS ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED.
In a number of instances rooms "underground" were found to be illegally occupied in
various parts of the borough. The illegal occupation was in each case discontinued on the service
of a written intimation or a statutory notice.
NUISANCE FROM GAS WORKS.
Complaints were occasionally received of nuisance from the gas works at Kensal Green—a
subject fully dealt with in the annual report for 1894 (page 166). There can be no doubt as to the
genuineness of the complaints, which receive confirmation from Willesden, the inhabitants of that
district suffering when Kensington people have no ground for complaint, and vice versa; the
incidence of nuisance varying with change in the direction of the wind. That the cause of nuisance
is more or less under control would appear from the intermittency of the complaints, and as the
smells are at times not perceptible to any noxious degree in the vicinity of the works. No
proceedings, whether by an indictment or for an injunction, have hitherto been taken.
DISINFECTION.
The Public Health (London) Act, 1891, imposed additional duties on the sanitary authority
in the matter of disinfection,* the practical effect of the legislation of late years having been to
throw upon the rates the cost of disinfecting houses, and of disinfection and cleansing of bedding,
clothing, etc. The cost of this work has largely increased since the Act came into operation in 1892;
the amount expended in 1903 was £843, compared with £381 in 1891. In the latter year the
weight of the articles disinfected was under 20 tons, their number being about 9,400 only; whereas
jn 1903 some 21,959 articles were dealt with, of an aggregate weight of 45 tons 4 cwts., whilst
seven hundred and eighty-six rooms, in 724 houses, were disinfected after infectious disease,
compared with 364 in 1891.
The expenditure on disinfection, including cleansing of clothing, bedding, etc., varies from
year to year, with the prevalence of infectious disease. Very few disinfections are now done at the
cost of the occupiers of houses, or the owners of clothing, bedding, etc. I append a statement
of the monthly cost of this work in 1903, which is irrespective of the wages of the disinfecting
officer.
£ s. d.
January 49 11 2
February 45 7 9
March 78 19 3
April 77 16 1
May 75 0 1
June 75 7 6
July 86 10 10
August 88 19 1
September 78 8 7
October 61 8 5
November 65 5 7
December 65 16 2
* In the report for 1893 (pp. 215-217), under the heading " Duties of the Sanitary Authority with respect to Disinfection,
I explained the state of the law, and described the late Vestry's practice in regard to the matter.