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105
Cleaning of Verminous Persons.
No proper local arrangements have yet been made by the
London County Council for the cleansing of verminous school
children and occupiers of common lodging-houses within the Borough
of Lambeth—statutory obligations imposed upon the County
Council by Parliament. The London County Council, as the
Educational Authority, have simply suggested that the Borough
Council should provide cleansing stations under the Cleansing of
Persons Act, 1897 (a permissive Act), and that the County Council
should have the use of the same by agreement at stipulated charges,
for the cleansing of verminous (a) school children, and (b) adults,
e.g., inmates of common lodging-houses, the stations to be planned
with separate entrances for children and adults. The stipulated
charge offered by the County Council is 2/0 a child, such payment
to cover any number of attendances by the child at the station for
cleansing within a period of one calendar month from the date of
the first cleansing. No stipulated charge is offered for adults.
This suggestion of the County Council has not yet been accepted
by the Borough Council, who are of opinion that the provision
of cleansing stations for verminous (a) school children, and
(b) inmates of common lodging-houses, is a statutory obligation
devolving upon the County Council, under whose jurisdiction
schools and common lodging-houses are. Meanwhile Lambeth
Borough remains unprovided with the required local cleansing
stations, stations belonging to other Boroughs being used.
Verminous premises are disinfected as required, but such
disinfection is not satisfactory without the school children and
inmates of the commoon lodging-houses, who are themselves
verminous, being systematically cleansed also at the same time.
Re-infection is apt to occur, being brought about in 3 ways:—
(a) by some verminous article of clothing or bedding escaping
disinfection at all, or, at least, efficient disinfection.
(b) by some other inmate of the house—above or below
school ages—being verminous;
(c) by the purchase of verminous second-hand articles of
clothing or bedding from second-hand clothing shops,
coster's stalls, rag shops, pawnbrokers, re-make shops,
etc.
Legislation is required with a view to preventing the sale of
verminous and filthy second-hand clothing.