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rooms in 312 houses having, in twelve months to 30th April last,
been disinfected by your Vestry's officer to whom this duty has been
entrusted. The work has been done in a very satisfactory manner;
and though I am not prepared to speak in terms of absolute
certainty, I have reason to believe that in no case where disinfection
has been done by your Vestry's Officer and by the contractor,
has infection been spread by contagium remaining in
the sick room or its contents. It has not been found necessary,
moreover, to destroy clothing, bedding, &c —a plan adopted in
some parishes, and found to be very costly in the way of compensation.
Should the negotiations above referred to for a site for a
mortuary fall through, and should your Vestry be thus compelled
to look elsewhere for a site, it would of course become a
question whether a very complete establishment should not be
provided, including mortuary (two rooms), a post mortem room,
and a Coroner's Court; to which might then be added a disinfecting
chamber of the most approved description—the entire
establishment to be placed under the charge of a responsible
officer who would act as keeper of the mortuary, and superintendent
of disinfection. This plan would doubtless prove costly ;
but whatever the expense there can be no question but that
it should be carried into effect with as little delay as possible.
I trust, however, that the necessity will not arise.
BATHS AND WASHHOUSES.
Your Vestry having previously expressed approval of the
principle of the Acts for providing Public Baths and Washhouses,
have now adopted them. The sanction of the Local Government
Board has been obtained, and Commissioners will shortly be appointed
to carry out a scheme. It is intended in the first instance
to erect baths, &c., in the northern part of the parish at Notting
Hill, and it may be fairly hoped, that, as one of the first and best
results of the Commissioners' labours, many of the almost innumerable
laundresses in that neighbourhood will use the washhouses; for,
as a rule, nothing can be more unsatisfactory or insanitary, than
the arrangements for the washing of family linen in the close and
crowded houses occupied by the people who carry on this business.
It may be hoped that in due course baths, &c , will be provided for the
central and southern wards—separately or in combination: but
whatever may be the case at Notting Hill, not the least of the
difficulties in carrying out the Acts in the other wards will be the discovery
of a site or sites purchaseable at a reasonable rate. The
difficulty may prove well nigh insuperable in the South District,
and will not be slight in the Central Ward, notwithstanding
the compulsory powers for the acquisition of sites for carrying
out the purposes of the Act.