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impure linen to the wash during periods of serious contagious
illness, requires some stern remedial measures to be adopted.
Public Laundries.
Public laundries, aided by the necessary machinery,
would be a great safeguard to the public, and a source of
health and comfort to the poorer classes.
Their room or rooms would be rendered more wholesome
by freedom from the damp caused by the steam of washing
and drying clothes.
Linen clothes would be got up in a well ventilated
establishment, and could be rapidly dried in an airy wholesome
room, without reference to weather, could be wrung without
destructive tearing, and the destruction by washing powders
could be avoided. All this might be done without depriving
the laundress of her means of support.
A more intimate knowledge of the risk incurred by the
present system must eventually create a demand for efficient
washing establishments, and I believe, that as a commercial
speculation, the money invested in baths and wash-houses has
been made to command a good dividend.
The arrangements necessary for carrying out the sanitary
requirements of the district have been yearly increasing in
importance, and are now many of them well supplied.
Cottage Hospital for Infectious Diseases.
An excellently situated hospital, for the reception of
patients suffering from infectious disease, is provided. To
which a medical officer is appointed, and a nurse and porter
are always in attendance.
Ambulances are in readiness, upon application, to remove
patients suffering from infectious diseases.
Covered iron carts are to be had upon application at the
Board of Works offices, for the conveyancc of infected bedding
and articles of wearing apparel to the disinfecting apparatus.
Disinfecting apparatuses are placed in two parts of the
district, viz: at Pcngc and Catford.