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305
The question of erecting a station for this work
has been before the Joint Works and Sanitary and
the Sanitary Committees for some time past.
For the fumigation of sick-rooms cake sulphur
has been chiefly relied on, which is ordered to be
used in the proportion of 1 lb. to 1,000 cu. ft.—an
amount which is, in practice, always exceeded.
Formaldehyde gas has also been used to some
extent, and the spray machine (formalin) occasionally.
Stripping and whitewashing after infectious
illness have not been required unless the room
has been dirty, or the wall-paper much torn. Izalpowder
and carbolic soap have been distributed
gratuitously to those who could not afford to purchase
the same. The utility of disinfectants, as
usually employed, is a very doubtful quantity—
cleanliness and fresh air are more to be preferred
and trusted. The expenditure for disinfectants of
all kinds amounted to £52 last year, £50 less than
in 1898.
Houses Let in Lodgings.—The work under Section
94 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, which
had been more or less in abeyance since February,
1898, was resumed on the appointment of Mr. T.
Mitchell as an Assistant Inspector to enforce that
Section, in February, 1899. During the rest of the
year (10 months) a large number of houses were
visited for preliminary inquiries as to