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such as can be washed in hot water, being first steeped in some harmless
disinfecting solution, and then boiled, and such woollen articles as
cannot be thus treated being exposed to a dry heat of 212° or 220°, after
the manner recommended by the late Dr.Henry, and adopted at Liverpool.
To do this would require the provision by the Vestry of the necessary
apparatus in some convenient place; and the Vestry is empowered to
make such a provision by the 23rd section of the Sanitary Act. I beg
to recommend that it should be made.
Sometimes bedding is so horribly filthy and old that destruction by
fire is the only method of disinfection that could be applied. Possibly
the Board of Trustees—on the representation of this necessity having
arisen in any special instance—might not object to replace the articles
destroyed. On every occasion that I have sought their co-operation,
they have assisted my efforts as far as they considered that their power
to do so extended, and I cannot doubt that some arrangement might
be entered into as to this matter also. In that case, the Sanitary
Committee might, perhaps, see fit to order the destruction of what could
not well be otherwise treated.
5. That the room or house—if necessary—in which small-pox has
broken out, should be disinfected in a similar manner to cholera houses
or rooms. The Sanitary Act enables us to effect this readily enough.
The means of disinfection being provided by the Vestry, outbreaks
of scarlatina and fever could also be met with more satisfactory results
than they are at the present time.
EDWARD BALLARD, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.
Vestry Offices,
January 7th, 1867.