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101
PUBLIC MORTUARY.
Bodies were deposited at the Mortuary to the number of 274, compared with 334, 338, and
341, in the preceding three years respectively; upon applications as follows :—
1. At the request of the relatives of the deceased 3
2. At the request of undertakers, mainly at the instance of the relieving
officers 75
3. At the request of the coroner (inquest cases):—
Cases of sudden death 89
Cases of violent death 85
174
4. Brought in by the Police—Persons found dead 13
Accident cases 7
20
5. On account of death due to infectious disease 2
274
In 112 of the above cases post-mortem examinations were made under the coroner's warrant.

Complaint is occasionally made of improper detention in houses of the bodies of deceased
persons, on the supposition that the Council possess power to remove bodies to the public mortuary
at will. What the law enables the Council to do, is set out in the 89th section of the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, which provides that—
" When either—
(а) 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 workroom; or
(c) Any dead body is retained in any bouse or room so as to endanger the health of
the inmates thereof, or of any adjoining or neighbouring house or building;
a jastice 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 connection
with removals for private burial from the borough infirmary.