I cannot allow the subject of a mortuary to pass without a brief reference, and an expression of my great regret that the parish is still unprovided with one. As I have stated in former reports, the burials, at the public expense, of poor persons, occupants in life of single rooms, are reckoned by hundreds every year; and I cannot doubt that in a large proportion of these cases the survivors would avail themselves of the privilege of depositing their dead in a public mortuary of suitable construction, and in a suitable locality. Poor persons in somewhat similar circumstances, but above the pauper class, would, in all probability, also use the mortuary. The law provides for the removal of the bodies of those who have died of an infectious disease, viz., on medical certificate and by Justice’s order. Bodies of persons found dead or accidentally killed, and not identified, would be received as a matter of course. A properly-designed mortuary would embrace a room for conducting _post-mortem_ examinations, which are now often made under painful and distressing circumstances, to say nothing of the inconvenience to which the operator is put—and there were 154 such examinations last year by coroner’s order. It should also embrace a suitable Court for the due and proper execution of the coroner’s office. No progress in this matter has been made since my last report, a conference with a Committee of the Board of Guardians, with a view to the appropriation of a portion of the stone yard at the Dispensary Buildings, Mary Place, Potteries, having proved abortive. I cannot say I regret this result, as I do not consider the site a desirable one. The mortuary should be quite distinct from any association with pauperism, and though privacy of site is desirable, I hold that it should be placed in the most respectable and the most central locality that can be obtained, in order to ensure its being used. I am still of opinion that the DISINFECTING CHAMBER