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150
he may live. The conference of the Sanitary Authorities,
convened by your Vestry in 1881, on the subject of Notification
of infectious disease, dealt with this question of
compulsory removal also, having passed a resolution to the
effect that the law, as it stands, is " insufficient for the
protection of the public health," and should be " so amended
as to empower any Justice to direct the removal to a
hospital .... of any person suffering from any
dangerous infectious disorder, and being without proper
lodging or accommodation, which would enable him to
be properly isolated, so as to prevent the spread of disease to
other inmates of the same house ; or to be properly treated."
My own view that such an alteration of the law is necessary,
is just as strong now as when I drafted the above resolution
thirteen years ago. I was glad to observe, therefore, that in
a Bill to amend the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
introduced by Sir Henry Roscoe and other members in the
session of 1893, the subject was proposed to be dealt with in
this direction, section 3 of the Bill providing for the following
sub-section to be added, and numbered to section sixty-six of
the principal Act, viz.:—
" (4) A person who is not provided with lodging and accommodation in which
proper precautions can be taken to prevent the spreading of the
dangerous infectious disease from which such person is suffering, shall
be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, to be without proper lodging
or accommodation."
The state of political affairs, unfortunately, did not allow
of the Bill being carried into an Act, and the same cause is
operating now as a bar to legislation on the subject.