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49
Mortuary■—There is no Mortuary or Dead House in
this District to which persons who have died of infectious
disease, or of persons who have met their death suddenly,
by accident or otherwise in the streets, and who are unknown,
can be removed. Until recently this latter class
of persons were removed to the dead house in connection
with the Workhouse Infirmary, but this privilege now no
longer exists. Where such persons will now be placed, in
the absence of a Mortuary, I know not, but it is with
regard to persons dying of infectious disease that a Mortuary
claims our attention. We have in this district a
large number of the pcor class of people, who at most
have perhaps two rooms in which to live and sleep, and
very frequently only one; imagine a body dying even from
a non-infectious disease, lying in a room for days in which
others must sleep and probably take their food. How
much worse, and what greater risks must be run, if the
death should be from Scarlet Fever, Small Pox, or other
infectious disease. This fact is sufficient alone to show
the necessity of a Mortuary—it has been a disputed point
whether a dead body can or does give off any infection,
but whether it does or not, many persons would avail
themselves of the privilege of a Mortuary in which to
place a body waiting for interment; besides this, the
Sanitary Act, sect. 27, says, " Any nuisance authority
may provide a proper place for the reception of dead
bodies, and where any such place has been provided and
the dead body of any one who has died of any infectious
disease is retained in a room in which persons live and
sleep, or any body which is in such a state as to endanger
the health of the inmates of the same house or room, any
justice may, on a certificate signed by a legally qualified
medical practitioner, order the body to be removed to such
proper place of reception at the cost of the Sanitary
Authority, and direct the same to be buried within a time
to be limited in such order." It also gives power to the
same authority for the provision of proper convenience for
the making of post mortem examinations, when necessary
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