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16
Cremation.
The Medical Officer of Health is Medical Referee for the Council's Crematorium which is situated
in the St. Marylebone Cemetery at East Finchley. During the year, 1,798 certificates authorising
cremation were issued. Since December, 1937, when the Crematorium was opened, 15,354 cremations
have taken place.
The number of cremations authorised in 1957 (1,798) almost equals the combined totals (1,813)
of those authorised during the eleven years following the opening of the crematorium in 1937. It will
be realized, therefore, that the time spent in the Department on this work is ever increasing, as are
the problems which daily confront the Medical Referee.
The Association of Crematorium Medical Referees, referred to in last year's report, came into being
on 1st June, 1957. The objects for which the Association is established are:
" (i) To keep under review legislation so far as it applies to Medical Referees appointed pursuant
to the Cremation Acts.
(ii) To promote and encourage adoption of standard forms and uniform procedure under the
provisions of cremation legislation.
(iii) To consider matters coming within the purview of Crematorium Medical Referees, especially
those newly appointed, and to advise and consult with other interested bodies and with
Departments of State."
Although the requirements of the Cremation Regulations appear to be clear and definite, their
interpretation differs widely among doctors called upon to complete the necessary medical certificates.
In an effort to obtain uniformity in the completion of these certificates, notes for the guidance of
doctors were printed and attached to the forms. Although a few medical officers in hospitals objected
to some of the requirements thus brought to their notice for the first time, on the whole the notes
proved to be acceptable and led to the submission of fewer incorrectly completed forms. A special
committee of the British Medical Association, on which the Association of Crematorium Medical
Referees is to be represented, has been set up at the request of the Home Office to review the whole
of the existing arrangements for cremation, in so far as they affect medical practitioners and medical
referees, and it is hoped that one outcome of this will be the revising of the present medical certificates
to eliminate as far as possible all ambiguities.
Mortuary.
Two male and two female bodies were received in the Public Mortuary in Chiltern Street.
Transportation of Bodies Abroad.
In certain cases where bodies are transported overseas, the Medical Officer of Health of the district
in which death has taken place is asked to furnish a certificate to the effect that the deceased did not
die from any infectious or contagious disease and that no recent epidemic of dangerous infectious disease
has occurred in the district.
During the year two certificates were issued in respect of bodies being transported to Cyprus and
Iraq.
Dog Nuisance.
The Council's bye-law dealing with this nuisance provides that:—
"No person being in charge of a dog in any street or public place and having the dog on a lead
shall allow or permit such dog to deposit its excrement upon the public footway."
Although it has been shown that dogs can carry and excrete germs capable of producing illness
in man, cases of human disease can seldom be positively related to infection from this source. However,
there are many obvious objections to fouling of the footway by dog excreta and not least amongst
them is the attraction to flies and blowflies with the consequent hazards to health.
During the year, contraventions reported by the Street Nuisance Inspector resulted in twenty-one
summonses. In all of these, convictions were secured and penalties imposed.
Street Photographers.
A local bye-law, made by the Council under section 146 of the London Government Act, 1924,
came into operation on the 1st August, 1952, prohibiting the importuning by a street photographer
of any person, in certain prescribed streets or public places, for the purpose of taking or selling any
photograph. An offender against the bye-law is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding
£5. As the administration and enforcement of most other "good rule and government" bye-laws