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38
I have felt it my duty to report such houses to the Vestry. The
duty is placed upon the Health Officer by Act of Parliament,
and I felt that I should be unworthy of my office were I to fail
in this respect.
The closing of illegally occupied underground dwellings was
systematically enforced during the year, and orders were issued
for preventing the occupation of 884 of these places, or they were
altered to meet the requirement of the Act. Doubtless this has
not been well understood by many who had for years derived
rental from their occupation, but the time had fully come for the
Vestry to exercise all the powers they pcseess for the improvement.
of the health of their parishioners.
During the year I have, as already said, carefully inspected the
bake-houses of St. Pancras, of which there are over two hundred,
and the Vestry have made orders for the improvement of those
which were found to require alteration. These orders have been
complied with, and the bake-houses of St. Pancras will now bear
favourable comparison with those of other parts of the Metropolis.
Cow-sheds and slaughter-houses have also been duly visited by
the Inspectors and by myself, and the requirements of the Vestry
have been enforced.
The determination of the Vestry to provide the Parish with a
Public Mortuary is a matter for sincere congratulation. The
retention of the dead, often of the infectious dead, in rooms with
the living, is a practice which has been permitted too long.
"When the poor have no alternative other than the workhouse
mortuary, or the undertaker's premises, it is no matter for
surprise that the dead have often been kept in rooms which are
occupied by day and by night by living persons. The Vestry
must not be disappointed if there is not immediately a large
demand for the use of the mortuary they are about to erect;
this can only come about as the result of the process of education,
but the lesson will gradually be learnt that the dead can,
pending burial, be placed in the mortuary without irreverance,
and without injury to the better feelings which belong to human
nature, while, at the same time, the safeguarding of the health
of the living is ensured.
The improved opportunities for the removal of the infectious
sick is a further gain, and the admirable ambulance
arrangements of the Metropolitan Asylums Board deserve
special recognition here. The removal of the sick has