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5. That the local sanitary authorities should have power to require the detention of any
inmate of a common lodging-house or casual ward who may reasonably be suspected of being
liable to convey infectious disease.
6. That means should be provided for the detention and isolation of any vagrant found
wandering in a public place, if reasonably suspected of being liable to convey infectious disease.
7. That the local authority shall have full power to require the disinfection of the person
and clothes of any person in a common lodging-house or casual ward, whether infected or
exposed to infection.
8. That arrangements should be made by which the occurrence of infectious disease in
common lodging-houses or casual wards should be made known by the local authority of the
district to the local authorities of other districts.
9. That local authorities should be empowered to require the vaccination or re-vaccination
of persons in common lodging-houses or casual wards who are exposed to the infection of
small-pox.
The transcript of the shorthand notes taken at the conference was subsequently printed, and
copies sent to the authorities represented.
Mortuaries.
In my last report I gave account of the districts which were provided with adequate mortuaries,
and of the steps which were being taken in other districts to improve mortuaries which were incomplete
in one or another respect. The reports of medical officers of health for the year 1894 show that in
Limehouse a site was purchased in the Horseferry Branch-road for this purpose. In Mile-end Old-town
the erection of a newly erected mortuary in the rear of the Vestry-hall was almost completed. The
medical officer of health of St. George-the-Martyr directs attention to the need of separate accommodation
for the bodies of persons who have died from infectious disease. The medical officer of health of
St. Olave reports that the accommodation at the mortuary is inadequate. The report of the Rotherhithe
Vestry contains an account of the steps taken with a view to the provision of a mortuary in the burial
ground of St. Mary, Church-street. The Lambeth Vestry purchased a site in Wanless-road, Herne-hillroad,
at a cost of £1,000, for the use of the northern parts of the district, and the sanitary committee
was instructed to inquire as to the necessity of erecting a mortuary at Norwood for the use of the
southern part of the district. The medical officer of health of Streatham states that the new mortuary
had been of great service during the year. The medical officer of health of Plumstead reports that
" no steps have yet been taken for providing a mortuary more adequate for the size of the parish."

It should be stated that a monthly examination of the water delivered by any filter affords
inadequate test of the continued efficiency of the filtration throughout the year. In November
exceptional floods occurred in the Thames and Lea, and the records of bacterial examination
show that in only two instances did the water of any company " as supplied" contain more than
40 microbes per cubic centimetre, the number of microbes in the case of the two exceptions being 68 and
124. The water appears to have been collected for this examination on the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th of
November, before the floods were conspicuous. It would, in view of the floods and of the exceptional
behaviour of enteric fever in December, to which reference has been made, have been interesting to
know the number of the microbes each day in the water supplied during the month of November.
References to water supply occur in the reports of the medical officers of health of the following
districts—
Kensington.—The medical officer of health comments on the freezing of the mains during
part of January and February, and to the regulation made under the Water Act of 1887, requiring the
laying of the mains at least two feet six inches below the surface.