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16
every day during which he continues to make default; and the Nuisance
Authority shall cause such house or part thereof to be cleansed and
disinfected, and may recover the expenses from the owner or occupier in
default in a summary manner." Accordingly, wherever small-pox occurred
within my' knowledge, the necessary notices were served as soon as the patient
had removed, had died, or recovered, and they were accompanied in every
instance with full directions as to the mode in which disinfection should be
carried out, and the necessary chemical substances for the purpose were
gratuitously supplied from my office. Usually the time given for the
commencement of the work has been 48 hours, and then, if at the expiration
of that period the inspector found on visiting the premises that no commencement
had been made, we sent in a workman to perform the work,
keeping an account of the expenses for recovery from the person liable.
With the sanction of the Committee, large quantities of filthy bedding and
valueless clothing have been burned, their equivalent being supplied at
contract price by the Guardians, who make it a charge upon the Vestry.
All this work has been superintended by the inspectors, and has so occupied
their time, that nearly all the ordinary systematic work of the department
has had to stand aside.
The cholera epidemic of 1866 was a trifle compared with the outbreak of
Small Pox in regard to the labour it has imposed upon all connected with
my department. Still it has not been labour or pains thrown away. I have
good reason for believing, that had it not been for the efforts made to
destroy the contagion as it became deposited, and the perfect
manner in which its destruction (disinfection) has been accomplished, we
should have suffered yet more severely than we have suffered.
In several instances too, we have had occasions to put into force the 39th
section of the Sanitary Act, which relates to the letting of houses or rooms
in which any person suffering from a dangerous infectious disorder has been,
without a previous disinfection, certified by a medical practitioner to be
satisfactory. We found, for instance, in several cases, that Small Pox had
occurred in families put in charge of empty houses, sometimes without the
knowledge of the owner or agent, and every day some person or other was
unwittingly being exposed to contagion in being shown over such houses.
In all such instances we have required disinfection to be carried out, and the
bill, for a time, to be taken out of the window. In two or three instances,
an attempt has been made to evade the law, by bringing me a certificate
from a medical man to the effect that disinfection had been carried out to