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putrid. A visit was made to the shop of the baker,
at No. 1, Medway Street, Westminster, to caution him;
and a loaf was bought and left at the office of the
Westminster Board of Works, in order that the local
authority of that district might protect the public.
Burial of the . Dead. A man died in St. George's
Hospital, on Thursday, the 14th July, and late in the
evening of the 15th was brought home to his own
lodging in Blomfield Place. Then a representation was
made by the neighbours, and the undertaker, Mr. Simmonds,
to the Medical Officer of Health, of the extreme rigour
of the regulations of the parochial cemetery at Hanwell,
by which, if notice is not given to the sexton by noon on
Friday, no corpse can be interred till the following Tuesday.
Notice evidently could not be given in this case;
and the body was not buried till Tuesday, the 19th:
although luckily no nuisance was created, for Mr. Newson
caused it to be put into an empty warehouse.
Offences against health and decency are unavoidable
when interments are delayed in hot weather, unless such
substance as the disinfecting powder of Macdougal or
of Falconer, be used copiously, which the undertakers
seldom choose to do. An undertaker averred, that a
body removed for burial from Davies Street, on Sunday,
the 14th August, 1859, was so decomposed, that he was
obliged to take out of the coffin a quantity of sawdust
saturated with putrilage, and put it into the dust-hole;
and that the coffin still leaked, in spite of his filling it
up with fresh sawdust. The regulations should be suspended
at discretion, to prevent even the chance of
occurrences like this, too disgusting to commit to writing.
Death accelerated by impure air. On 20th July, a
complaint was brought to Dr. Druitt, concerning the