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The disease among the school children was not of a
fatal type.
In January of this year we started sending out a circular
letter relating to consumption, and offering disinfection to
all private houses where a death had occurred. In a certain
number of cases our offer has been accepted, a much larger
number, I regret to say, took no notice of our letter, while a
not inconsiderable proportion in their reply stated that precaution
had been taken throughout the disease with regard
to the avoidance of any spread of the infection.
In consequence of representations made to the Sewers
and Sanitary Committee by myself regarding the necessity for
more extended registration of houses let in lodgings it was
decided by that body to appoint a Sub-Committee to inspect
these premises after I had recommended them for registration,
and before any resolution to that effect was submitted by the
Committee. The Vestry, however, passed "the previous
question." The By-laws, therefore, relating to Houses let in
Lodgings are practically only in force in the district round
Hollington Street, although it is my opinion that other parts
of the Parish are equally suitable for registration in this way,
and it was my intention that the houses on which the discussion
arose should be the starting-point of a much wider
registration than has heretofore existed.
In regard to the notification of infectious diseases, we
have been requested several times during the year to withdraw
certificates by the Metropolitan Asylums Board, on the ground
that although the illness had occurred in our Parish, the person
attacked had been removed to an institution in Camberwell
from an outside district, therefore according to law the Medical
Officer of Health of this outside district was the one to be
notified, notwithstanding the fact that judging from the time of
removal to the onset of the disease this must have been contracted
in Camberwell.
As we were bound by law so to do their wishes were
duly carried out. It, however, seems to me to be a most
serious disadvantage of the law that the Medical Officer from
whose district the patient has been removed is the only one to be
xiv.