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maintained by filth and disease. A community in good health, with
good water supply and perfect cleanliness in every way, might rest
assured that cholera could not produce much mischief were it
imported. Isolation, sanitary precautions and immediate recourse to
medical treatment, are the means to be adopted should this disease
appear. Anything like a panic is to be avoided.
Public Mortuary. During the quarter 74 inquests have oeen
held in the District ; 34 of this number took place in the London
Hospital; 40 would therefore have been held at the Inquest Room
of the Mortuary House had there been such a building in the
District.
Deodorising Gullies. During the summer months, the following
plan is carried out under the direction of the Surveyor:—The District
is divided into three parts, and the gullies in each division are
disinfected twice a week. To each van-load of water (about 450
gallons) is added 45 pounds of sulphate of iron and 6 gallons of
carbolic acid. All the gullies in this District (about 800) are liberally
treated with this mixture.
Water Supply. The water supplied to the District by the East
London and New River Companies still remains, according to the
latest analysis, excellent. One cannot, however, too frequently
repeat the caution against using stored water for drinking
purposes. As only a few houses in the District are now without
supply, this can easily be avoided. London cannot be congratulated
upon the means whereby its sewerage is disposed of at present. The
main drainage system, with the outfalls at Barking and Crossness,
will soon (if they have not already) become sources of danger, and
it is to be hoped that the present Royal Commision may devise a
plan to deodorize the excreta before they are discharged into the
River.
School Board and Home Lessons. Justices Matthew and
Day, in the Queen's Bench Division, respecting a case from Bradford
have decided that the School Board has no power to enforce the learning
of home lessons. The Medical Press is generally in favour of this
decision. I think it is manifestly illogical, and unfair to the poor
scholars, to expect those children, whose progenitors were illiterate, to