View report page

53
3.—In order to minimise the risk of infection by handling books in common,
it was suggested that the material should be allotted to individual
scholars, and that for this purpose each set of books should be enclosed
in a separate bag of such material as can be easily and readily cleansed.
The expense of this would be small.
4.—With a view to minimise the amount of dust in the school, the drilling
should be carried on out of doors or in a covered shed, and if at any
time this was found to be impracticable, instructions should be given
to prevent stamping on the floor during such exercises, as observations
have shown that this is productive of dust.
5.—Attention was called to the insanitary construction of the latrine
closets at present in use.
The Medical Officer in reply wrote stating that "the defective sanitation
has been reported to the Architect, and will be attended to." With the exception
of Nos. 1 and 2 the above recommendations have been carried out.
CREMATION.
The principal objection to this—the most sanitary method of disposal of
the dead—is entirely one of sentiment.
Since the passing of the Cremation Act of 1902 the chief cause of opposition,
apart from sentimentalism, was based upon the opportunity it might afford
for the destruction by fire of evidence of foul play in cases of murder. This
has now been entirely eliminated. The Cremation Act directs that cremation
can only be carried out under regulations issued by the Home Secretary, and
the regulations now in force are so carefully drawn up that—while they do
not impose any unreasonable restrictions—the chances of any person who
caused death maliciously being able to escape justice are now less than in
cases when bodies are interred in the usual manner. This will be made
clear by reference to the regulations themselves.
It is scarcely necessary to discuss here the serious objections attaching
to the system of earth burial now obtaining. They are many, and its
abandonment for a method that is without danger to the living will inevitably
be forced upon the public.
Firstly, intramural burial was prohibited ; next, burial grounds in thickly
populated districts have one by one been closed. When it is remembered
that some 735,000 bodies have annually to be disposed of in England and
Wales every year, it is not surprising to find that these difficulties arise—
London alone contributes between seventy and eighty thousand of these bodies,
and the time must come when the question of earth burial will become acute.
It is not only insanitary, but expensive, and any method that provides the
poorer classes with a cheaper mode of dealing with their dead should be