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and, notwithstanding the power that is given to any four householders, living
in or near to any street, to put in action your Board, by stating in writing to
the Officer of Health, that in or near that street, any premises are in a condition
unfit for habitation, yet no letter has been addressed to me upon that
subject by any of the inhabitants of this District.
The fault of allowing the several important provisions of the Sanitary
Act, 1866, to be disregarded, does not altogether lie with the local Boards,
and especially with those who have jurisdiction in such crowded Districts as
that of Whitechapel, where very few square yards of space are to be found. The
framers of the Act have required certain provisions to be made for the protection
of the public health, but they have not caused to be inserted in the Act such
clauses as will enable the local authorities to obtain the possession of land
by compulsory purchase, whereon to erect the required buildings, for the
purposes specified by the Act. Unless such powers be given for the purchase
of land, for the purposes required, it will bo almost impossible for local Boards to
obtain suitable sites for the carrying into effect the requirements of the Sanitary
Act. Let these powers be granted, and local Boards will have no
difficulty in carrying out the most important of the provisions of the Sanitary
Act. These buildings, which I consider absolutely necessary for the protection
of the public health, are—1st, A mortuary for the reception of the dead
when the bodies cannot be retained in rooms, which are occupied day and
night with the relatives or friends of the deceased. 2nd, A proper disinfecting
apparatus for the disinfection of clothes, bedding, &c., belonging to and
used by persons who have suffered from any contagious disease. 3rd, A carriage
for the conveyance of persons, not aupers, afflicted with contagious disease
to the public hospitals set apart for such patients. 4th, A. post mortem room,
furnished with everything necessary, to enable the Surgeon to make such an
examination of a body as will enable him to speak with confidence as to the
cause of death. The nuisance and inconvenience occasioned to poor families,
where a post mortem examination is conducted in their only room, are so great,
that a proper place for such examinations should be provided. Besides, it is
almost impossible to make a post mortem examination properly, unless the
room is light and well ventilated.
A building of sufficient height might be erected in this district, and the
same might be so arranged as to contain all the rooms required for the abovementioned
purposes, under the same roof.
It is further necessary, for the health of the District, that a hospital be
provided for the reception and treatment of such persons, not paupers, residing
in the District, who are suffering from contagious disease, so that, by
the removal of such patients to a hospital, the number of the centres of contagion
may be diminished. Lastly, it is important that a house of refuge bo
provided to receive the healthy inmates of a house in which persons arc
suffering from a contagious disease, and where they can remain until the
infected house has been subjected to a process of thorough disinfection.