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•207
I instructed the Mortuary Keeper that in future no bod}'
should be "screwed-down" in his absence, and that sawdust
should be provided for use when requisite, in order to avoid
repetition of such a scandalous procedure.
REGULATIONS FOR HOUSES LET IN LODGINGS.
The powers conferred on Vestries and District Boards,
by the Sanitary Acts of 1806 and 1874, enabling them to
make regulations "for houses, or parts of houses, let in
lodgings, or occupied by members of more than one family,"
are re-enacted in the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
section 94. Every Sanitary Authority is thereby required
to make and enforce such bye-laws as are requisite for the
purposes specified. Your Vestry's regulations for the said
purposes were confirmed by the Local Government Board in
1886. Some 1800 houses have been registered, and
many others await the attention which it is hoped that we
shall be enabled to give to them when the newly-appointed
Sanitary Inspectors shall have entered upon their duties.
UNDERGROUND ROOMS.
The duties of the London County Council, in respect of
the supervision of underground rooms, under the repealed
section 103 of the Metropolis Local Management Act, 1855,
have been transferred, by section 96 of the Public Health Act,
to the Sanitary Authority, whose duty it will be to appoint
one or more officers to report such rooms to them, and not
to the County Council. It is to be presumed that your
Vestry will in due course appoint the Sanitary Inspectors for
this purpose. Hitherto, owing to the insufficiency of the
staff, it has been impossible to take up this branch of
sanitary work. The new provisions of law with respect to
underground rooms ("cellars" are no longer mentioned) are
more stringent than those of the old Act: some account of
them is given at page 125,