View report page

149
Of the total numbers who were cleansed it will be noted
that 500 were men, 4 only women, and 117 children, the latter
coming mainly from the public Elementary Schools. In connection
with the cleansing of these 617 persons, 7,614 articles of
clothing belonging to them were submitted to steam disinfection
at the Disinfecting Station. These are not included in the
tables of articles disinfected on page 143.
The Personal Cleansing Station, as will be seen from the
above figures, has been very largely availed of, and has proved
a great boon to those unfortunate persons who, owing to their
destitute condition, are unable to provide themselves with a
bath and clean clothing. Some of these persons succeeded in
getting employment after they had taken advantage of the
facilities provided by the Council, which in their previous condition
it would have been an impossibility for them to have
obtained.
It should be stated that in carrying out this useful hygienic
work, the Council is performing a purely voluntary duty. The
Act is not in any sense compulsory : a Local Authority is not
under a statutory obligation to administer the Act, nor, should
the Authority so decide, is there any power to compel any person
to avail himself of its provisions. From Dr. Wanklyn's Report
to the London County Council in 1905, on the administration of
the Act in the Metropolis, it would appear that comparatively
few Sanitary Authorities have made any considerable use of the
provisions of the Act. In Marylebone the Sanitary Authority
began to administer the Act in March, 1898, and from that
time up to November, 1904, the number of persons cleansed
was 32,500. In St. Pancras the Sanitary Authority availed
themselves of the provisions of the Act in 1904, and in the first
six months about 1,400 persons were cleansed, of whom 600
were women and children. These are the only two Sanitary
Authorities which had up to that time made much use of the
provisions of this useful Act; and in many districts the adminisitration
of the Act had been left in the hands of the Boards of
Guardians.