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13
that other possible modes of transmission of the disease had not been
given adequate weight yet it is certain that a considerable amount of
useful epidemiological work was being done at this period.
During the same year (1881) the Vestry installed the first
disinfector in the old Stone Yard, Lithos Road, This was an apparatus
which disinfected by air heated to 240 degrees F, by gas burners.
Three years later the temperature regulator failed and the apparatus
was destroyed by fire, It was replaced by high pressure steam
disinfection similar to that which is in use today.
Smallpox was not, of course, the only serious infectious
disease which was prevalent and the infectious diseases which caused
the greatest number of deaths during the ten years from 1870 onwards
were "diarrhoea" followed by whooping cough, scarlet fever, measles,
smallpox and diphtheria in that order of severity. The highest
individual figure for any one year was 59 deaths from scarlet fever in
1870 (when the population was one-third of the present day figure).
The British Medical Association had passed a resolution in
favour of the compulsory notification of infectious disease in 1882,
In 1889 the Hampstead Vestry instituted voluntary notification and the
Infectious Diseases Notification Act came into force later in that year.
The Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, gave the
Vestry additional powers and during that year 51 houses were represented
and were either put in proper repair or were demolished. The
Vestry was not at that time empowered to provide dwellings but Wells
Buildings and Campden Buildings had been provided by the Wells and
Campden Charity as some of the first large blocks of dwellings in the
old town. The "New Buildings" had been privately erected in Flask
Walk in the '50's,
The Public Health (London) Act, 1891, consolidated much of
the law relating to public health in London and represented most of the
sanitary code of London for the next 45 years. Indeed, some of the
sections of this Act remain in force and many others have been
repeated almost word for word in present legislation.
During the same year the Mortuary was opened in New End
on the site of "Chestnut House" and a shelter was provided in the old