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146
1910]
about which such visitors will be able to impart instructions to the sufferers.
It is to be regretted that in Islington no Health Visitors have been appointed,
and that apparently the Council are determined not to appoint them.
It will be noticed that one of the duties of the Health Committee which
is to be established in each district under the new Insurance Bill is to see
that the various Acts relating to public health are enforced, and, if this become
law, it is as certain as night succeeds day that many of the defaulting authorities
will be compelled to enforce those Acts which are now allowed to remain passive.
It must be clear to everyone who will consider the matter with an unbiassed
mind that when the notification of any particular disease is made compulsory,
such notification must be followed up by some action on the part of the
Sanitary Authority; and that it was not, as already pointed out when discussing
the notification of biiths. for the purpose of chronicling the fact that certain
persons were afflicted, and of entering their names in a register that the Public
Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1908, and the Public Health (Tuberculosis
in Hospitals) Regulations. 1911, were passed, for this would be merely throwing
useless clerical work on the sanitary authorities.
The Medical Officer ol Health feels that the strong opinion which now
exists throughout the country must have its effect on those sanitary authorities
who will not comply with the intentions of the Local Government Board and
Parliament. The days of doing nothing are hastening to an end, and the
Medical Officer of Health does not regret it.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN THE PUBLIC ELEMENTARY
SCHOOLS.
These diseases consist of two classes, those known as the notifiable
infectious diseases (Small Pox, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Enteric Fever,
Erysipelas, etc.), which are reported in due course by the Sanitary
Authority to the head teachers of the schools, and those other diseases which,
though infectious, are not notifiable under the Public Health (London) Act,
viz.: Measles, Chicken Pox, Whooping Cough, Mumps, etc.
During the year the Inspectors on making inquiry found that 579 of the
persons attacked were suffering from one or other of the notifiable infectious
diseases, which were equal to 38 per cent, of all the cases notified. Of these
diseases none were attributable to Small Pox; 369 were credited to Scarlet
Fever, as compared with an average of 653 in the preceding 10 years, so that