The reports to which we have just reerre I contain abundhnt evidence of the neces sity for the universal establishment of mortuaries, or houses for the reception of the dead until the period of the burial. In some parls of Germany, the deposit of the dead in such 110:13C3 is compulsory; and in many parts of the continent, there arc laws rigidly enforeiag the burial within a certain number of hours after death.
Bef.ire proceeding t.) consider how far our sanitary regulations have effected a saving of human life, dt is expedient to glare a brief notice of the chief acts of parliament which have pissed. and government reports that have been officially published, hearing on impartatat sanitary subjects: Beginning with 1833, in which the factory children's act was passed; in 1831. the practice of employing climbing boys for sweeping chimneys was abolish:Al; in 1843 and 1841, the act to extend the practice of vaccination was passed; and in 1812, the employment of women and children in mines and collieries was abolished. Then appeared the general local reports on the sanitary condition of the laboring classes, 1812, which constitute, as Dr. A. P. Stewart well observes, a "remark able series of volumes, for which we were indebted chiefly to Sir. Chadwick, and which, revealing as they did an almost incredible state of matters in our crowded centers of population, were read by multitudes with it strum) and eager interest."—The Medical and Lva A.pect8 of Sanitary Reform (1867), p. 5. These 'Reports of the Health of Towns Commission led to the passing, in rapid succession. of " the acts fer promoting the estab lishment of bath and waeh-houses in Great Britain and Ireland. in 1846; the towns improvement act, in 1817; the public health, the nuisances removal, and the city of Loudon sewers acts, in 1848; the metropolitan interments act, in 1850, followed in 1853 by a similar act for the whole of England; • the act to encourage the establishment of lodging-houses for the laboring-elaSses, and the common lodging houses act, in 1851; the metropolitan water act, in 1852; the smoke nuisance abatement (metropolis) act, and the act to extend and make compulsory the practice of •vaccination, in 1959; the merchant shippiog act, with its stringent provisions for the preservation of the health of our merchant stamen, in 1854; the diseases prevention, the metropolis local management, the metropolitan buildings, and the nuisances removal amendment acts, in 1853; and the public health act of 1859, which abolished the general board of health, and vested its powers in the privy council. Since then, there have been added to the statute-books the acts for the purification of the Thames, in 1838 and 1866; the act for preventing the adulteration of articles of food and drin, in the same year; the acts (passed in 1860, 1861, and 1884) which included, tinder the provisions of the factory acts. women and children employed in bleaching and dyeing works, in lace factories,and in the manufacture of earthenware, of Mei fer-matches of percussion caps and cartridges, of piper-staining and of fustian-eutting; the vaccination amendment act in 1861; the act for the seizure of diseased and unwholesome meat, and the alkali works act, in 1863; the sewage utilization act, in 1855; the laboring-classes' dwelling-houses act, and the sanitary act, iu 1866."— Stewart, op. cit., p. O. The last-named of these acts—the sanitary or public health act of 1866—contains certain clauses with which every one should be acquainted. Its first
part is an amendment of the sewage utilization act, 1865, and provides, later alio, that any owner or occupier of premises within the district of a sewer authority shall be entitled. tinder certain conditions, to cause his drains to empty into the sewer; but if a dwelling-house is without efficient draislage, the sewer authorities may require the owner to make a sufficient drain, emptying into a sewer, provided the latter be not more than 100 ft. distant; nod that the sewer authority may provide a supply of water for the use of the inhabitants of the district. The second part is an amendment of the nuisances removal acts—the word " nuisance': being made to include (1) any house or part of house so overcrowded as to be dangerous or prejudicial to the health of its inmates; (2) any factory or workshop not kept cleaned and properly ventilated; (3) any fireplace or furnace not, as far as possible, consuming its own smoke; and any chimney (not belonging to a private house) sending forth black smoke. The rules for the removal of such nuisances are laid down. The nuisauce authority, moreover, 11.:s power to enforce Le cleansing and disinfecting of houses or articles therein likely to retain infection. and to fine those who disregard the injunction; to provide a proper place for disinfecting, clothing, bedding, etc., and to effect the disinfection of such articles; to provide carriages for the convey ance .of infected persons to hospitals, etc. The 25th clause is so important, and its nature so very little known, that we extract it verbatim.' " If any person, suffering from any dangerous infectious disorder, shall enter any public without notify ing loahe owner or driver thereof that he is so suffering, he shall, On conviction thereof before any justice, be liable to a penalty not exceeding £5, and shall also be ordered by such justice to pay to such owner or driver all the losses and exp•nscs they may stiffer in carrying into effect the provisions of the act; and no owner or driver of any public conveyance shall he required to convey any person so suffering until they shall have been first paid a sum sufficient to cover all such losses. and expenses." The act further lays it down that places for the reception of the dead may be provided at the public expense, and that any justice may, on the certificate of a legally qualified medical prac titioner, order the removal thither of the bodies of those who die of infections disease;* and gives permission that special plates for the performance of post-mortem examination may be provided. The third 'part of the act is headed "miscellaneous." It treats of various points for the better management of lodging-houses, lays a penalty not exceeding £5 on any person with infdetious disorder exposing himself, or on any person in charge of such a sufferer causing such exposure; and a penalty not exceeding £20 on persons let ting honses, rooms, or part of at house in which infected persons have been lodging, with out having such houses. or rooms, and articles therein, disinfected to the satisfaction of a qualified medical practitioner (the keeper of an inn is deemed to let part of a house to any person admitted as it guest into such inn). It is very much to be regretted that most of the provisions of this and other acts bearing ou public health are permissive, and not peremptory.