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and if he fails so to do, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five
pounds, and the owner or driver of such conveyance shall be entitled
to, recover in a summary manner from the person so conveyed by
him, or from the person causing that person to be so conveyed, a
sum sufficient to cover any loss and expense incurred by him in
connection with such disinfection. It shall be the duty of the
Sanitary Authority, when so requested by the owner or driver of
such public conveyance, to provide for the disinfection of the same,
and they may do so free of charge.'
"With reference to this case, one may perhaps be allowed to
remark that the child ought not to have been permitted to leave
the dispensary in the way he did, but he should have been isolated
on the premises for the half-hour or so it would have taken to
obtain one of the Asylums Board ambulances, which would have
been sent on receipt of a message, by telephone, or telegram, or
otherwise. In the circumstances, no charge, presumably, would
have been made had the child been taken home ; none certainly
had he been removed to the hospital. It is strange that no one
at the dispensary appears to have known that a cab could not be
lawfully used for the purpose of the removal. It is manifest,
however, that the danger of using the vehicle was recognised, as
the cabman was directed to go, not to the home of the sufferer,
but to the head-quarters of the Sanitary Authority. Happily, no
injury to the public health resulted, inasmuch as the vehicle was
disinfected. But it might have been otherwise."
The above case attracted a good deal of attention in the
newspapers, due, not to the fact of exposure of the infectious
sick person, but entirely to the incident in connection therewith,
involving hardship to the cabman. The point of the
case, regarded from a sanitary point of view, viz., the
unlawful use of the cab, was entirely overlooked. Another
case of exposure, of more local interest may be cited from the
the same (twelfth) report: —
" A woman took her son, aged 4 years, to a general
hospital on account of a sore throat. The medical officer of the
hospital said the child was suffering from diphtheria. He