View report page

65
Overcrowding has only been discovered in twelve instances.
Some difficulty arises however in obtaining correct information,
especially when previous notices concerning overcrowding
have been served in the same street
Repairs have been ordered in 380 dilapidated houses.
Defective roofs, and rain-water gutters, and unpaved back
yards have similarly engaged attention. These, spite of
magisterial remarks to the contrary, are undoubtedly sanitary
defects. They certainly favour through the dampness developed,
if they do not produce Consumption and Rheumatism; and
we know no reason why these complaints should not be
brought under the preventive power of the Sanitary Authority.
Disinfection of houses in which Scarlet Fever or Small Pox
has occurred, has been effected in 44 cases by burning sulphur.
In 21 cases the bedding was subsequently burnt. The
recurrence of Small Pox in two families in which bedding
had been burnt and rooms fumigated after the removal of the
first cases to the Small Pox Hospital, led one to suspect
some defect in the method of disinfection. A careful examination
of dates in each case however proved that the remaining
inmates received the infection before the patients were
removed to the hospital, and therefore before disinfection was
effected. The fault lay in the lack of isolation prior to removal,
and not in the disinfection. Unfortunately in many of these
cases the inmates of an infected house decline to purchase
immunity by re.vaccination.
Bakehouses have been periodically visited, and except a
few instances where lime-washing was required, have been
found in a sanitary condition. The Factory Act of 1883 (46
and 47 Vict. c. 53, s. 15), requires that any cisterns supplying
water to a bakehouse shall be separate and distinct from
any cistern for supplying water to a water closet. In a bakehouse
in Wandsworth Road the vigilance of the Inspector
discovered an evasion of this important regulation. Two taps