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48
decomposing it. It is the same property which gives
to charcoal the wonderful power it exercises as a
disinfectant. I know of nothing which acts so
powerfully as a deodorant on the dead human body
as charcoal. Two or three pounds introduced into
a coffin will at once take away smell, and render
tolerable that which would otherwise be almost
unbearable. I mention this especially as I know of
nothing that is so disgraceful to our civilisation as
the way in which our dead are kept in fully occupied
dwelling houses. Not the slightest effort is made
to take away the smell of the decomposing body, or
to prevent the inhabitants of the house from taking
disease.
Do what we can, the dead body in a house,
especially in summer, is always " a nuisance injurious
to health," and ought to be dealt with by the sanitary
authority Decency and prudence both dictate that
dead bodies should be removed from amongst the
living. This fact has been impressed upon the
legislature, and they have given ample powers to
local authorities to provide public mortuaries; but
except those which are connected with our Workhouses,
I do not think that there are a half-a-dozen
mortuaries in all London to which a dead body could
be removed previous to interment.
2. The predisposed body. On some persons the
poison-germs take no effect. In the London Fever
Hospital and the Small Pox Hospital, the nurses
who attend upon the sick seldom or ever take the
disease. The sewers man works from six to eight