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48
The second drawing represents a disinfector as made for the interior of
hospitals, or such places where a permanent one is required. Here it
assumes the form of an elongated cylinder, and is to be fixed in the rooms,
divided by the party wall, one half in each room. The object of this is to
guard against contagion, the persons who place the infected articles in the
apparatus in the one room being quite apart from those who take them out
when purified iu the other room, the arrangements of the appliance and its
working being the same in both cases. We learn with satisfaction that
since we recommended this apparatus many of these disiufectors have been
adopted in different parts of the country, and that many medical officers of
health are using every exertion to have them adopted in their various
districts. In the interests of the public health it is to be hoped that this
description of the process, coupled with the action of the Local Government
Board, will be the means of giving an impetus to the speedy and more
general adoption of the Washington Lyon Disinfector."
PUBLIC MORTUARY.
The mortuary continues to be found very useful. Eighty-eight bodies
have been temporarily placed therein. Its condition is not so satisfactory
as I could wish : the inside walls are getting very shabby, and the
ventilation of the post-mortem room is not good. A special report on
its condition has been laid before the Sanitary Committee.
SANITARY WORK DURING THE YEAR.
As will be seen from a glance at Table VI. a good deal of useful
work has been done by your inspectors in relation to nuisances of a
miscellaneous kind.
Apart from the periodical and routine visitation of trade premises it
is by the constant inspection and re-inspection of property inhabited
by careless and destructive tenants that most good can be done.
I recently felt it my duty to recommend a house-to-house inspection
of the whole parish, a procedure urgently required to ascertain the
condition of the drainage and water-supply arrangements.
I regret to say that this recommendation was not acted upon; as I
think, with the prospect of an epidemic of Cholera looming in the near
future, we certainly ought to know our exact condition, and be in a
position to remedy defects where found.
The sanitary staff cannot be ubiquitous, and many people are so
careless or ignorant that, sooner than take the trouble to report choked
closets and stinking drains, they continue to exist amongst unsanitary
surroundings that could be easily rectified were they once discovered.
I have the honour to be, Gentlemen,
Your most obedient servant,
GEORGE PADDOCK BATE.