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and delegating it to local sanitary authorities. The Act then deals with workshops and
bakehouses, and provides for certain sanitary conditions therein. The Local Government
Board are enabled to make orders for the registration and inspection of dairies, for
securing the cleanliness of milk vessels, and for prescribing precautions to be taken for
protecting the milk against infection. The next part of the Act deals with the removal
of refuse, and the most important change is that which abolishes the duties
formerly incumbent upon the owners or occupiers of premises to cause the footways and
water-courses adjoining their premises to be swept or cleansed in time of snow or the
like. The Vestry is now required to give notice of the times appointed for the removal of
dust, and to remove it at those times, or in default will be liable to a fine not exceeding
£20. Another provision is inserted to the effect that "any dustman or dustman's
employer who demands any fee or gratuity for removing any house refuse" shall be liable
to a penalty of not less than 20/-. The next part of the Act effects some most
important and necessary sanitary reforms with reference to water-closets and sanitary
conveniences. A new house must now be provided with as many water-closets as
circumstances may require, and a penalty of £20 is imposed on a person responsible for
the improper construction or repair of a water-closet or drain.
The Vestry are empowered to provide public lavatories as well as other sanitary
conveniences. In the section which deals with unsound food the law is assimilated to
that now in force throughout the rest of the country under the Public Health Act, 1890.
The powers of Medical Officers and Sanitary Inspectors as to unsound food are now
extended to every article of food, and a person who has been twice convicted within
twelve mouths of selling such food may, in addition to his punishment, be pilloried by
having a notice affixed to his premises of the facts upon which he has been convicted.
As to the water-supply, there are one or two very important and novel provisions.
One of them is that an occupied house without a proper and sufficient supply of water
is considered a nuisance, and can be dealt with summarily, and if a dwelling house
it is deemed unfit for human habitation. Another is that if a water company cuts off
the supply of water from any dwelling house they must give notice to the Vestry.
A further innovation is that which relates to the cleansing of drinking-water cisterns,
a question on which the Vestry have in the past taken important action. The
provisions relating to the notification of infectious disease are much the same as those
contained in the Notification Act of 1889, which will no longer apply to London. The
Medical Officer of Health, upon receipt of a notice of infectious disease must now send
to the head teacher of the school attended by the patient (if a child), or by any child
who is an inmate of the same house as the patient, a copy of the notice. Every
Sanitary Authority must now provide a mortuary for their respective districts, or in
combination with another Sanitary Authority. They have also a discretionary power
to provide a place for post-mortem examinations. The London County Council must
provide proper places for the holding of inquests, and may provide one or more places
for the retention and preservation of dead bodies found in London and not identified.
Underground rooms not separately used as dwellings before the 5th August, 1891, when
the Act passed, may not be so used in future unless they fulfil certain enumerated
conditions. With regard to underground rooms which were occupied as dwellings