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(III.) In 1904-5-6 it had been found that more accommodation was
necessary for children, that the children required to be separated from the
adults, that a more desirable point of access should be provided for the
children, and that it was advisable to avoid the repellance of the terms
"cleansing of verminous persons" in connection with children accidentally
acquiring vermin by attending school. Accordingly, at the beginning of
1906, the two middle rooms (each with bath room attached) of the four rooms
on the upper floor of the west wing were set apart for children and cut off
from the Contact Shelter at the south end of the women's portion of the
Personal Cleansing House at the north end by the provision of glass doors,
locked by the Woman Attendant. This part of the building was named the
Children's Baths, and access was provided to it by means of a new entrance
made on the west side of the building by shifting one of the baths and
erecting a substantial iron staircase approached from the St. Pancras Gardens.
These alterations cost £50. (See Annual Report of M.O.H. for 1906.) In
1908 it was found necessary to provide two new baths, one in the girls' and
one in the boys' room, at a cost of £14 10s.; so that the Children's Baths
consist of four— two for the boys and two for the girls. The new entrance and
staircase and two additional baths cost together £64 10s.
In consequence of a large amount of clothing requiring to be disinfected at
frequent intervals during the day, and the excessive wear and tear in using the
large steam chambers for this work, a new small disinfecting apparatus was
installed to relieve the larger chambers. At the same time a vertical boiler
was erected to produce all the steam and hot water for the several buildings
in substitution of fires and a geyser.
THE CLEANSING OF VERMINOUS SCHOOL CHILDREN.
The Cleansing of Persons Act, 1897, empowers local authorities to expend
any reasonable sum on buildings, appliances and attendants, and empowers
them to permit any persons infested with vermin to have the use, free of
charge, of such, for the purpose of cleansing their persons and clothing of
vermin.
The London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1904, section 19,
empowers the sanitary authorities, upon the certificate of the Medical Officer
of Health that any articles are filthy, dangerous or unwholsome, to cleanse,
purify or destroy such articles; section 20 similarly empowers the sanitary
authorities to require owners of houses to strip, cleanse, etc., rooms or parts
of houses upon the certificate of the Medical Officer of Health that any house,
or part, is infested with vermin; section 21 applies section 59 of the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, compelling sanitary authorities to provide means
for cleansing, purifying and destroying filthy, dangerous or unwholesome
articles and for the removal thereof, and for the cleansing of houses infested
with vermin to the purposes of the two preceding sections of the Act, and
section 24 gives the sanitary authorities power of entry for the purpose of
carrying out the afore-mentioned sections, and in the interpretation, section 23,
it is to be observed, that the expression " house " includes " schools."
The London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1907, by section 36,
empowers the Medical Officer of the London County Council to examine the