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65
MORTUARY.
I very much regret that I am still obliged to report
a deadlock in the proceedings for the building of a
new mortuary. Mr. Merceron still bars the way, and
fresh legal difficulties seem to keep rising. The old
watch.house in Church row, which is utterly inadequate
for the purpose, has provided a temporary resting place
for sixty.three bodies. While the Parish is so ill.
provided with mortuary accommodation we cannot
require people to move their dead to such an unsuitable
place. The importance of a proper mortuary is
immense as a means of preventing the spread of contagious
disease, and also of contributing to the comfort
of those poor persoDSwho have perhaps only one room
in which to eat, drink, and sleep. Often we find that
a corpse has been kept in such a room for days, and if
the person has died from a malady like small pox, the
emanations from the body will undoubtedly tend to
spread the disease to those living in the room, and
indeed to the inhabitants of the whole house. The
following is an instance of the careless way in which
bodies are sometimes hawked about. During the year,
Mr. W. W. Burrows reported that a fatal case of small
pox had occurred at 10, Shacklewell street, and the
body had been removed to the premises of an under.
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