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77
Action
taken at
Battersea
The action taken by the Vestry in favour of the
compulsory notification of Phthisis has already been
referred to on pages 70 and 71, the subject having
been eventually referred back to the Health Committee on the
13th September. After a very careful re-consideration of the
subject, they submitted the following report, which was approved
by the Vestry on the 8th November.
"Your Committee are unable to recommend that any
further steps be taken at present in the direction of compulsory
notification, but they recommend that the handbill advising the
public as to precautions to be taken to prevent the spread of the
disease be re-issued throughout the Parish, that the Registrars
of Deaths be requested to immediately notify all fatal cases of
phthisis to the Medical Officer of Health with a view to disinfection
of the premises, and that the Medical Officers of local public
institutions be asked to notify all cases admitted into such
institutions."
This system in practice has been found to be very effective,
copies of the precautions are from time to time posted in prominent
positions in the Parish ; the registrars immediately notify all
deaths from phthisis, and Dr. Lyster, of Bolingbroke Hospital,
has most heartily promised to assist the Vestry by notifying any
cases coming to his knowledge. Dr. Neal, of the Union Infirmary,
however, regrets that, anxious as he is to assist, he does not feel
justified in furnishing the required information, in view of the
case of Kitson v. Playfair.
In all cases coming to knowledge by the means referred to,
disinfection is tendered and is accepted in a very large proportion
of the cases.
On the 22nd February the Vestry resolved to urge the
Local Government Board to promote legislation in the ensuing
session for preventing the sale of milk and cream infected with
tubercle baccili, and for the regulation of dairies and the
inspection of cows in cases to which the disease may be traced.