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6
In my last Annual Report it may be remembered that I called your
attention to the importance of an establishment for cleansing infected linen
and bedding. Since that Report was presented, the Public Baths and Washhouses
have been opened in King Street, and will, undoubtedly, be of great
service to the public in that neighbourhood by the facilities which they
afford both for bathing and for laundry operations. The Commissioners and
the Vestry are to be congratulated on having erected on a limited plot of
ground such commodious premises, in every way adapted for the purposes
contemplated. Whatever promotes habits of cleanliness has a tendency to
improve both the health and the morals of the people.
I should now like to see a second establishment erected in another parf
of the Parish, where there might be laundries of the ordinary kind, as well
as a distinct department for the purification of infected clothing, such as
has been provided in Liverpool. This would be a comparatively inexpensive
matter, whilst it would be of immense value in checking the spread o
infectious diseases, and in affording to the poorer classes a place for washing
and other laundry operations. If it were thought desirable, a few private baths
might be fitted up in connection with this second public wash-house, the
expense of swimming baths being avoided.
In Liverpool two disinfecting establishments have been provided, and
are found to be of great service. The Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Trench,
writes to me, "I am so satisfied with the good effects of the apparatus, that
I should like to see them introduced into every jail, workhouse, and
corporation throughout the kingdom."
The apparatuses are on two distinct principles; the hot-chamber is
heated by steam-coils in one case, and by hot air in the other. Dr. Trench
recommends the latter as more effectual, because a higher temperature can
be obtained, and the risk of burning the clothes may be avoided by ordinary
care on the part of the superintendent. At each establishment there is a
house for the keeper, a receiving-room for infected clothes, a wash-house,
drying closets, and disinfecting chamber, with a depositoiy for the clean
clothes. The cost of one establishment was £900, and of the other £1,300 ;
this latter might have been diminished by reducing the number of stoves.
The establishments are in daily use, and nearly 200 articles are disinfected
in each, every week. No charge is made for the use of the disinfecting
establishments. "They are used alike by rich and poor; indeed, the
greatest number of articles, beds, &c., come from people in a rather well-to-do
condition of life." A van has been provided for the removal of infected
clothes, and the expense for horsing the van is arranged by contract—
so much for each journey.
In my last Annual Report I called your attention to the importance of
making a provision for the disinfection of clothes and bedding in St.
Pancras. I should recommend that a laundry be established in another
part of the Parish, and that there should be two distinct departments, one
for ordinary soiled linen, and the other for infected clothes. A public
laundry in the south of the Parish would be a very great boon to the poor,