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5
Rat Repression.
Mr. J. Carter, your Rodent Officer, reports as follows:—
Organisation and procedure during 1950 have been similar to those of previous years, and in
compliance with the requirements of the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act, 1949, consisted of
inspections of blocks of premises to ascertain the presence of rats and mice; treatment of any such
premises found to be infested ; and periodical treatment for the destruction of rats in sewers.
A total of 3,217 premises were inspected, comprising blocks of offices, riverside wharves, markets,
restaurant kitchens, workshops and domestic dwellings.
During the year, 846 infestations of rats and / or mice were treated; 9,280 operational visits
were made ; 129,295 pre.baits and 1,719 poison baits were laid.
These measures resulted in an estimated minimum kill of 4,370 rats, and of this number 1,632
bodies or 37 per cent, were found. Trapping was the means of destroying 605 rats, and added to those
found as the result of poison, a total of 2,237 bodies were removed from the premises. In addition,
the bodies of 710 mice, killed by poisoning, were found.
No records are available of the number of rats destroyed by Pest Control firms servicing premises
periodically under contract.
In collaboration with the Metropolitan Boroughs contiguous to the City, two maintenance
treatments of the sewers were carried out in May and December respectively. In May the estimated
kill was 1,448 rats and in December 1,450 rats.
Rat proofing has been advised and carried out where practicable, and in several instances has
entailed extensive repair work and structural alteration. Equal attention has also been given to
incidental rat-proofing.
Pre-baiting and poisoning has been the principal means of control, and trapping a secondary
measure. The technique advised by the Infestation Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and
Fisheries has been strictly adhered to with satisfactory results.
Disposal of the Dead.
The Corporation of London established a Crematorium in their Cemetery at Manor Park in 1905
and in that year nine cremations were carried out there. Progress in the adoption of cremation as an
alternative to earth burial was slow. In 1910 there were 22 cremations at Manor Park; in 1920
58; in 1930, 112; and in 1940, 574. Since the war progress has been very rapid, and in 1950 the
number of cremations was 1,857.
Experience in crematoria throughout the country is similar. Many local authorities plan to build
crematoria, but because of the shortage of building materials and labour, have not been able to
obtain authority to proceed. There is little doubt that when it is possible to provide crematoria
reasonably accessible from any part of the country, cremation will replace earth burial as the usual
method of disposal of the dead.
There are still only two furnaces (coke fired) at Manor Park, but two new electric furnaces and a
new chapel are in course of construction and will be in operation before the end of 1951.
Your Medical Officer of Health is firmly of the opinion that from every point of view cremation
is the best method of disposal of the dead. At the request of the Cremation Society he wrote the
following for the Society's series of propaganda pamphlets entitled " Why I support Cremation":—
A Medical Officer of Health considers cremation from three points of view; as an individual:
as a member of the medical profession ; and as an administrator concerned with the health and
welfare of the community.
As individuals we may prefer not to contemplate what happens to the body after death, but
to think only of the dead as we knew them in life and of the spirit which has departed from its earthly
habitation. But some of us, particularly in time of war, have our attention forcibly directed to the
fate of the human body after death. It is then that many of us receive a shock and determine that
for ourselves and for those whom we can influence, there shall not be, after death, the slow decay of
that body, which in life we have endeavoured to preserve at least in dignity and grace, if not in
beauty. So we become advocates of the only means of disposal which, in minutes rather than years,
converts the body into the simple elements of which it is composed.
As members of the medical profession we have seen death at every age ; before the mind is
conscious of the body ; when the mind is still rejoicing in the strength and beauty of the human
form; and finally when the mind is weary of the body and wishes only for the release of the spirit
from it. We have seen death when the body has been sadly mutilated by violence or disease and.
though we preserve life by every means in our power, we feel that, when death comes and the
spirit has returned to God who gave it, the body should be disposed of with all reverence, but with
all speed.
As Medical Officers of Health we are concerned with the community rather than the individual;
but a community is the sum of the individuals composing it, and therefore we, must consider the
effect of individual action on the welfare of the community.
We must ask ourselves whether the method of disposal of the dead may adversely affect the
living. First of all, does burial of bodies in the earth endanger the public health. It is obvious that
pollution of the soil occurs in graveyards and cemeteries, but is such pollution likely to spread disease,
particularly in relation to the interment of persons who have died from infectious illness? If such
were the fact, it might be necessary in the interests of the public health, to make cremation compulsory,
at least in cases of death from certain diseases. Fortunately the germs of disease do not
long survive in the dead body, and the bodies of those who have died of infectious disease are treated
in such way as is necessary to protect those who may be called upon to perform the last rites.
There is therefore no evidence that, in a community highly organised for the protection of the
public health, the interment of the dead is a direct menace to the living.
But there are indirect influences, both physical and psychological, which should not be ignored.
As regards the physical influences : in this crowded island, and particularly near the populous
towns, open spaces for out-door recreation for both old and young are difficult to find, since all
available land is needed for housing, for factories and business premises, or for agriculture, in order
that by our industry and agriculture we may at least maintain the standard of living of our vast