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28
offensive trade "within the Barnes Urban District, and is controlled
by bye-laws. There were on the Register during the year
five premises on which fish frying was permitted. No breach of
the bye-laws was discovered.
Rats and Mice (Destruction) Act, 1919.
The Council have continued to employ a whole-time ratcatcher
acting under the supervision of the Sanitary Inspector to assist in
the work of rat destruction and so reduce the amount of damage
and risk to health arising from these rodents.
Inspections are made periodically of premises likely to harbour
rats; during the year, 181 complaints of the presence of rats on
premises were received by the Sanitary Inspector. The ratcatcher
paid 270 visits to premises, and 331 visits to open spaces,
including the Commons, market gardens and orchards, and the
banks of the Thames and the Beverley Brook. Poison baits were
laid at 25 premises. The number of rat-tails brought to the Public
Health Office by the rat-catcher during the year was 933.
In 1926, during the first week in December a Rat-week
was again held as in the previous year; a film depicting
"The Rat Menace,'' lent by the Ministry of Agriculture and
Fisheries, was shown at the East Sheen Picturedrome by the
courtesy of the management, and leaflets were distributed to the
public as they entered and left the building. In addition, two
lantern lectures on "The Story of the Rat" were given by the
Sanitary Inspector at the Technical Institute.
Schools.
There are 13 Public Elementary Schools, and 19 Private
Schools in the District, and the sanitary accommodation and
general sanitary conditions have been found, on inspection, to be
very satisfactory on the whole.
The defective condition of the slate-slabbing of the urinals
at certain of the Schools having been brought to the notice of
the School Managers, the slates in question were replaced by
glazed fire-clay. The Sanitary Inspector reports that this has
been a great improvement.
Careful investigations have been made into all outbreaks of
infectious diseases amongst scholars attending either public
elementary or private schools, and the procedure with regard to
exclusion, referred to in detail in my Survey Report for 1925
(pages 38 to 40), has been continued during 1926 as in previous
years.