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45
discovered by sanitary inspectors in the course of their visits.
Previous annual reports have set out in detail the methods
by which these cases are assisted and dealt with.
National Assistance Act. Section 47
It is not our practice to take action under the provisions of
the National Assistance Act as soon as a case is brought to our
notice.
Every effort is made to seek other means of securing some
alteration in the general conditions. Cases are kept under surveillance
before the final request is made to the Council for
authority to proceed in the Magistrates Court.
One case only was taken to the Magistrates Court during the
year details of which are as follows:-
Information was received from the National Assistance Board
that an old man, aged 82, was living alone. He occupied two
rooms on the second floor. A visit revealed that the rooms in
question were extremely dirty and verminous, the old man himself
had not bathed probably for a year. He was very deaf and somewhat
rambling in his statements, He kept a cat which used the
room as a lavatory, The gas cooker in one of the rooms had
obviously not been used for a very long time and the old man
subsisted mainly on bread, jam and butter or margarine.
All efforts over a period of months failed to persuade him to
enter a home voluntarily and the magistrates court finally heard
the case and made an order for 3 months.
National Assistance Act 1948, Section 50: Burials
During the year it was necessary to arrange six burials
where deaths occurred and no suitable arrangements for burial
would otherwise have been made.
Establishments for Massage and Special Treatment
Part XII of the Middlesex County Council Act, 1944, provides
for the annual licensing of establishments of this description.
These are defined by the Act as "premises used for the reception
or treatment of persons requiring;-
(a) Massage manicure or chiopody, or
(b) electric treatment or radiant heat light electric vapour
or other baths for therapeutic treatment
(c) other similar treatment".