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104
1897]
If the Vestry were given this information it would bo possible to arrive at an
accurate knowledge of the amount of disease, if any, remaining in the homes of
scholars.
My Public Health Committee intended that prior to the re-opening of the
School the Vestry's Inspectors and myself should personally visit the homes of the
children, and there obtain informatien as to the presence or absence of disease in
each family. The Vestry would then be in a position to advise the School Board
as to the re-opening of the School. Without it the Vestry will be compelled to
arrive at a decision based on the return of deaths from Measles, which might
easily be misleading, either through exaggerating or minimising the number of
existing cases.
If the information, which is so earnestly desired, is to bo of any use it should
be sent to the Vestry at once, so that I may be in a position to report to the
Public Health Committee on Monday evening next. An early reply will, therefore
greatly oblige,
Yours faithfully,
(Signed) A. E. HARRIS,
J. H. Croad, Esq. Medical Officer of Health.
To this letter I received the following reply, dated 6th November, 1897, from
the Clerk:—
In reply to your letter of the 2nd instant, I am directed by the School
Management Committee of the Board to inform you that they regret that they
are unable to accede to your request that your Vestry should be furnished with
the names and addresses of the scholars attending the Infants' Department of the
above school.
1 will make no comment on this refusal, but you will note that no reason is assigned
or it.
Although I was altogether unprepared for this reply, yet I had made arrangements as
far as I could to obtain information lest the list should not reach me in time to be of use at
this meeting, and accordingly I sot a staff of Sanitary Inspectors to work to obtain as ful
particulars as was possible.
I am very pleased to be able to inform you that I have been able to procure considerable
information respecting the Islington scholars, and I am, therefore, now able to
report that 93 children, who live in houses from which children attend the infants' school,
are ill, and that of these 60 are scholars: that there are 48 houses infected, and that in
these 73 scholars reside.
This information may be relied on as almost absolutely accurate, although I should
remark that it does not include the scholars who reside in Clerkenwell.
At the meeting of your Committee on the 25th ultimo, the information then available
was that 49 houses were infected, and that 78 scholars were excluded in Islington, of
whom 35 were ill. Consequently there has been a decrease of 2 in the number of houses
invaded, but an increase of 25 in the number of scholars attacked.