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The cow-houses in the District, 25, the slaughter-houses, 33, and the
bake-houses, 71 in number, have been visited during the quarter.
In addition to this return, the Inspectors report that they have forwarded
to the Metropolitan Board of Works several notices of dangerous
structures, which notices the Metropolitan Board have promptly attended to.
Prolonged Retention of a Dead Body in a Room Occupied
by a Family.
Mr. Whack reports that, upon visiting No. 28, Church Street, Spitalfields,
on the 5th December last, he found in the second floor front room the
dead body of a child, which had died of scarlet-fever on the 1st of the
month. The body was not coffined, and it lay exposed on a table in one
corner of the room. The room was occupied as a living and sleeping room
by five persons, viz.: the father and mother, their child, a girl about 3 years
old, and by two adults, viz., the grandfather and grandmother of the
child, who were engaged at tailors' work. The child was playing on the
floor. The room was about 14 feet square, and 8 feet high, thus affording
only 260 cubic feet of space to each person. The smell on entering the room
was most sickening. Upon remonstrating with the people for keeping the body
so long unburied, and especially for not having it coffined, they replied that
they were waiting to raise the means for burying it; and, being Irish, said
that it was not their custom to coffin their dead until the day of the funeral.
The body was not buried until the 9th of December, and then it had to be
buried by the Parish Authorities.
Mr. "Wrack also visited No. 24, Princes Street, Spitalfields, on the 5th
January, and found in the second floor front room the dead body of an aged
woman, who died on Christmas-day. The room was occupied by the
daughter of the deceased, a person about 40 years of age, who lived and
slept in the same room. Upon asking the reason of her keeping the body so