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following recommendation was adopted by the Vestry: " That
the necessary steps be taken with a view to ordering that
Section 55 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, shall
apply in this Parish to cases of Phthisis." On the 22nd
February the subject was again brought forward for formal
approval, but was held over until the 8th March, when the
matter was again adjourned for a period of six months, being
a subject for consideration at the meeting on the 13th September,
when it was resolved that the matter be referred back to the
Health Commitee for further consideration and report. Subsequently
I submitted an exhaustive report on the subject of
the probable causes of Tuberculosis, the advantages and difficulties
of notification, and the action taken by some other
authorities in regard to notification. Upon re-considering the
subject, the Health Committee submitted the following report,
which was adopted by the Vestry on the 8th November, 1899:
" Your Committee are unable to recommend that any further
steps be taken at present in the direction of compulsory
notification, but they recommend that the handbill advising
the public as to precautions to be taken to prevent the spread
of the disease be re-issued throughout the Parish, that the
Registrars of Deaths be requested to immediately notify all
fatal cases of Phthisis to the Medical Officer of Health with
a view to disinfection of the premises, and that the medical
officers of local public institutions be asked to notify all cases
admitted into such institutions."
This system has now been in force for over a year, and
has been found very effective, resulting in disinfection being
carried out in a very large number of cases, inasmuch as of 201
deaths from Tubercular Diseases in private houses disinfection
was allowed in 142 instances, representing over 71 per cent.
In most of the cases disinfection not only included the fumigation
of the premises, but also the steaming of the bedding or other
similar articles. In another case disinfection was carried out
upon a patient changing his residence.