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the proper party, and to simplify and shorten the processes for enforcing the
same. "When regulations are made, the neglect of which entails penalties on the
responsible parties, there will be less delay in enforcing sanitary measures than
at present, when it is necessary in every case to ascertain that a nuisance exists
which requires removal, to serve a notice for the abatement of the same, then to
take out a summons in case of the notice being neglected, to serve an order from
the magistrate for the performance of the necessary works; if this order is
disobeyed, another summons has to be taken out and a penalty is inflicted; if
the penalty is not paid, another summons has to be issued; if the party do not
appear a warrant may be necessary. Whilst all these measures are in progress,
occupying at the least a month or five weeks, the nuisance may exist and be on
the increase, and disease may have been raging which might have been
arrested.
The Vestry will, I trust, lose no time in making application to the Secretary
of State for power to avail themselves of this section. "When his sanction is
obtained, regulations may be framed so as to include only the houses which
urgently require it, in which overcrowding is excessive, and infectious disease
is almost constantly present. As guardians of the public health, it is obviously
your duty to avail yourselves of the new powers placed within your reach, for
the improvement of that class of property which is occupied by the very poor in
which infectious fevers and cholera find a congenial soil.
Section 24 of the Sanitary Act, empowers the Vestry to provide a vehicle for
the removal of patients suffering from fever or other infectious disease to
Hospitals. The Cab which was purchased last year for the removal of Cholera
patients, is now the property of the Vestry; some provision is required for
horsing and attending it when needed. A more commodious conveyance, with
better springs is required, in which persons could be placed in a recumbent
position. I should recommend that a Hospital carriage be purchased similar to
those furnished by the Hospital Carriage Fund for the removal of fever patients;
the cab might be retained for Small Pox patients.
Another matter of great importance is, that a mortuary building should be
provided for the reception of dead bodies previous to interment, as provided in
the 27th and 28th sections. Where families occupy only one or two rooms, it is
in the highest degree objectionable, both in a sanitary and a moral aspect, that
the corpse should be kept amongst the living, until it can be buried. The funeral
is delayed from a variety of causes, sometimes to allow of friends being present
who live at a distance, sometimes to admit of the necessary funds being raised,
sometimes to await a coroner's inquest; in such cases the living are liable to be
poisoned by the dead. When a body is found dead and no relatives are forthcoming,
there is no public mortuary to which it can be taken except the deadhouse
connected with the parish workhouse, and this is not at all larger than is
necessary for those that die in that establishment.
When a post-mortem examination is necessary, the evil is greater and the
need of a public mortuary is more urgent.
These two sections of the Sanitary Act (Nos. 27 and 28) require your
serious consideration.
Although Cholera has disappeared from our midst during the past winter,
we must not too confidently conclude that we shall escape from its further
ravages during the ensuing summer.