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(3) No provision for the disinfection of articles by steam has been made in the case of
St. Saviour.
Charlton (sub-district).
In St. Saviour's district there is a hot-air apparatus in which infected articles are exposed to
dry heat and the fumes of sulphur.
In Charlton it is the custom to leave the articles exposed in the room during disinfection of
the latter by chlorine gas, but if this is considered insufficient treatment, they are destroyed by the
sanitary authority.
(B.) The disinfection of rooms.
The method adopted by different sanitary authorities, for the disinfection of rooms in which
cases of infectious disease have occurred is in the majority of cases fumigation with sulphur dioxide
gas. The gas is either produced by burning sulphur candles in the room in the proportion of one to
two pounds of sulphur to each thousand cubic feet of space, or is liberated from tins containing it in a
compressed form, all openings or communications between the external atmosphere and that in the room
having previously been carefully closed up by men engaged by the sanitary authorities for the purpose
of disinfection. In a few districts disinfection by formalin is also practised, the method usually adopted
being to cause diffusion of formalin gas through the room by heating dry formalin in the form of
tablets in a lamp specially constructed for the purpose.
In the Poplar and Bow sub-districts of the Poplar district disinfection by formalin is used in all
instances, but in this case formalin is used in a liquid form, namely, an 80 per cent. solution of commercial
formalin, and walls, ceilings, and floors are thoroughly sprayed with this by means of ordinary
garden syringes. Spraying in this manner is also in use in Paddington in places—such as cubicles or
schoolrooms—which cannot be readily closed.
In Camberwell disinfection is carried out by spraying with a solution of corrosive sublimate
1 in 3,000 parts, and in Fulham corrosive sublimate spray 1 in 1,000 parts is made use of in case of
single-room tenements when the tenant needs to re-occupy it the same night, and in other cases after
fumigation by sulphur, walls, floors and ceilings are washed with a solution of corrosive sublimate.
In all the districts whatever method of disinfection is adopted, the work entailed is carried out
by men employed by the sanitary authorities as disinfecting assistants, and where the room is closed
for fumigation it remains closed till re-opened by the assistant, except in one instance, namely,
Kensington, where it is the practice to recommend the tenant to keep the room closed for 24 hours, a
recommendation which it is stated has only in few instances not been carried out, the room generally
being found unopened on the following day, when it is the custom of the sanitary inspector to visit
the premises in order to examine them as to their sanitary condition.
On the reopening of rooms the procedure qf disinfection, so far as relates to work done by
men engaged by the sanitary authority, appears in most cases to end; but householders are
recommended either verbally or by printed instructions to wash floors, woodwork, and furniture, and
to well ventilate the room before again using it. There is, however, a want of uniformity as regards
further action taken by the different authorities. So far as can be gathered from the information
obtained during: the inquiry, the routine practised in the various districts is as follows—