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106
"When either—
(a) The body of a person who has died of any infectious disease is retained in a room
in which persons live or sleep; or
(b) The body of a person who has died of any dangerous infectious disease is retained,
without the sanction of the medical officer of health, or any legally qualified
medical practitioner, for more than 48 hours, elsewhere than in a room not used
at the time as a dwelling place, sleeping place, or work-room; or
(c) Any dead body is retained in any house or room so as to endanger the health of
the inmates thereof, or of any adjoining or neighbouring house or building;
a justice may, on a certificate signed by a medical officer of health, or other legally
qualified medical practitioner, direct that the body be removed, at the cost of the sanitary
authority, to any available mortuary, and be buried within the time limited by the
justice."
Many of the cases of improper deposit of dead bodies in living rooms, occur in connexion
with removals for private burial from the borough infirmary.
CHAPEL OF REST FOR THE DEAD.
With a view to correct the evil dealt with in the preceding paragraph, I recommended (No.
3 report, 29th March, 1902), the provision of a mortuary chapel at North Kensington. The grounds
for this recommendation were fully set out in the annual report for 1902, page 124. The Council,
upon the advice of the Public Health Committee, adopted the recommendation; and also my
further proposal to place the building at the south-east corner of Avondale Park, adjacent to the
park-keeper's residence. The building, completed at a cost of about £1,300, is now in use. It
comprises a mortuary chapel, two waiting-rooms for mourners, suitably furnished, sanitary conveniences,
etc. During the year 56 bodies were admitted. The regulations framed for the
management of the chapel, which is under the charge of the park superintendent, were printed in
the preceding annual report, page 92.
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WATER SUPPLY.
The supply of water, formerly in the hands of three companies (Grand Junction, West
Middlesex, and Chelsea), is now entirely controlled by the Metropolitan Water Board. No
complaints were received during the year either as to deficient quantity or as to the quality of the
water supplied. Constant supply is universal in the borough. During the greater part of the
year the water was periodically analysed for the Council by the Public Analyst, who was seldom
able to report so favourably as could be desired in regard to quality. The Water Board have now
matured arrangements for the chemical and bacteriological examination of the supplies in every
district of the Metropolis, and the reports of their water examiner are published monthly.
WATER SUPPLY TO TENEMENTED HOUSES.
In February, 1905, the London County Council addressed a circular letter to the Borough
Councils, calling their attention to a decision by a Metropolitan police magistrate, as the result
of proceedings by the Woolwich Borough Council, respecting the water supply of a three-storeyed
tenement house having six rooms, occupied by five families, and supplied with water from a standpipe
in a yard approached from the rear of the premises. The Borough Council had served the
owner of the premises with a statutory notice to provide a supply to the first and second floors
of the house, together with properly fitted stoneware sinks, and trapped waste-pipes to discharge
over the yard gully. The maeistrate decided that the stand-pipe in the yard was not a " proper
and sufficient supply of water" within the meaning of Section 48 of the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891, and that there must be a separate supply to each floor. An order to this effect was
made and carried out. The decision in the particular case may be regarded as reasonable, but I
think the Public Health Committee of the County Council adopted too broad a generalisation
in assuming that it could be regarded as a sufficient substitute for the legislation which the