View report page

60
enlargement of the existing mortuary was under consideration. The existing accommodation at Greenwich
consists of a mortuary in each of the parishes of Greenwich, St. Nicholas, Deptford, and St. Paul,
Deptford. Each of these contains but one chamber, but the Greenwich mortuary is provided with a
post-mortem room. In St. Olave the mortuary contains one small chamber and a post-mortem room.
Improvements in the accommodation of the mortuaries in St. James, St. Martin-in-the-Fields
and Holborn were, during the year, either made or about to be made.
The sanitary authorities of the following districts decided to erect new mortuaries : St. Saviour,
Southwark, Rotherhithe, Lewisham, Woolwich, Plumstead, Mile-end Old-town, Limehouse and
Wandsworth, in the last of which a new mortuary was erected at Streatham. In this district the
parishes of Clapham, Putney, Wandsworth and Tooting are provided with mortuaries.
The mortuary in the Hammersmith district, while containing a separate chamber for the bodies
of persons who have died from infectious diseases and a post-mortem room, is placed in the stone yard,
and is architecturally much out of keeping with the use to which the building is put.
With the object of enabling sanitary authorities to have the views of the Council as to the
character of the accommodation which should be provided, a plan was prepared showing a coroner's
court and mortuary with the proper accessories on a site.
Hospital Provision for Infectious Disease.
The report of the chairman of the Metropolitan Asylums Board for the twelve months ended
March 25th, 1894, shows that the hospital accommodation for fever, at the Manager's disposal in 1892,
was decreased during 1893 to the extent of over 1,000 beds (a) by the demolition of certain wooden
huts at the Eastern and North-Western Hospitals; (b) by the reduction, under medical advice, of beds
at the Eastern, North-Eastern, and Western Hospitals; and (c) by the impossibility of making use (as
in previous years) of the Upper Gore Farm Hospital (for convalescent fever cases), in consequence of
its being required for smallpox. The decrease was to some extent compensated by the erection of a
temporary hospital, containing 400 beds, at Tooting Graveney, but this accommodation was not available
until some time after the Managers had been compelled to refuse admission. The chairman states that
" by the erection of permanent hospitals on sites lately acquired at Tooting Graveney, Hither-green,
and Kidbrooke (Shooter's-hill-road), and by the establishment of one or more convalescent hospitals in
the south of the Metropolis, on a site or sites yet to be acquired, there will, at no distant date, exist
accommodation for above 5,500 beds in the Fever Hospitals of the Board." The Managers also increased
the accommodation at their disposal for smallpox from 1,100 to 1,498 beds.
Medical Officers of Health.
The Local Government Act, 1888, provides for the payment by the Council of a moiety of the
salary of any medical officer of health of a district appointed or re-appointed after the passing of that
Act. The Public Health (London) Act, 1891, provides that this contribution shall be made in the case
of every medical officer of health and sanitary inspector elected or re-elected after the passing of the
Act.
At the end of the year 1892, appointment or re-appointment of medical officers of health had
taken place in sixteen districts, and during 1893 nine further appointments were sanctioned by the
Local Government Board.
There were thus at the end of 1893, twenty-five out of a total of fifty-six medical officers of
health a moiety of whose salaries was payable by the Council. The following is a list of the twentyfive
districts in which the medical officers of health have been re-appointed or appointed—
Battersea. St. George-in-the-East.
Chelsea. St. George-the-Martyr, Southwark.
Fulham. St. Luke.
Islington. St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Mile-end Old-town. St. Giles.
Limehouse. St. Olave.
Lee—Eltham. St. Saviour, Southwark.
Poplar—Boiv. Strand.
,, Bromley and Polar. Woolwich.
Plumstead.
Places mentioned in Schedule G of the Metropolis Local Management Act—
The Close of the Collegiate Church of St. Gray's Inn.
Peter. Lincoln's Inn.
Furnival's Inn, Staple Inn, and the Liberty Inner Temple.
of the Charterhouse. Middle Temple.
Sanitary Inspectors.
During the year 1893, the Council became liable to pay a moiety of the salaries of 43 sanitary
inspectors appointed or re-appointed in the course of that time.
In April, 1893, I presented a return showing the number of, and other particulars with regard
to sanitary inspectors in the administrative county of London. The total number of such officers
(including 5 vacancies and 17 temporary officers), and excluding any reference to arrangements made in
places mentioned in Schedule C of the Metropolis Local Management Act, was 188. This number for a
population of 4,230,474 persons was equivalent to one inspector to every 22,503 inhabitants. In order
to compare the number of inspectors in 1893 with the number employed in 1889 (the date of a former
return), it was necessary to omit reference to the City and Whitechapel, as the number of inspectors in
those districts did not appear in the return for 1889. Excluding these two districts the number employed
in 1889 was 115, as compared with 173 in 1893, the increase being 58. I had to point out, however,