View report page

iro
disease was small-pox—a remarkable admission, seeing that
the first case, in an unvaccinated girl of 12, was severe, the
eruption being profuse and characteristic, whilst in the second
and fatal case, the disease was of the confluent variety, which
one would have thought it impossible to confound with any
other known disease. The fact that both patients had smallpox
was proved up to the hilt, and the Magistrate animadverted
on the "lamentable want of judgment and of knowledge"
exhibited by the defendant, who, being in doubt, should have
consulted someone who might have cleared up the doubt.
He suggested, moreover, the desirability of an attempt being
made to get the section amended, so that the offence of failure
to notify should be established—not on proof of the medical
practitioner " becoming aware," but " on it becoming evident "
that the patient was " suffering from an infectious disease to
which the section applies." In conformity with the'recommendation
of the Sanitary Committee, a communication on the
subject was addressed to the Local Government Board, setting
out the substance of the Magistrate's decision, and endorsing
his views on the defects of the section as expressed therein.
The wide publicity the case obtained, no doubt, secured in a
measure the object the Sanitary Committee had in view in
instituting the proceedings, though it may be, as the law
stands, somewhat difficult to prove an offence, such as that
with which the defendent was charged. The Magistrate
commended the course taken by the Sanitary Committee, on
public grounds, in bringing the case before the Court.
Jurisdiction of Justices.—It may be mentioned that
towards the end of the official year 1893-94, your Vestry
received a communication from the Clerk to the Kensington
Justices, with reference to the question as to the jurisdiction
of the County Justices acting within the Districts of the
Metropolitan Police Courts, raised some time since, and