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sources were submitted by the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers for bacteriological examination,
and the majority of them were found to have sewage contamination.
In order to prevent outbreaks of this disease due to the eating of contaminated shell-fish,
an Act ought to be passed prohibiting the use for food of any shell fish that have been laid or
stored in places liable to sewage contamination.
measles.
All the 30 deaths from measles during the year were of voung children under five years
of age. Eleven of the deaths belonged to Bloomsbury and St. Giles, and 19 to the Holborn
Sub-Division. The decennial averages for these districts of the Borough were 20 and 26
respectively.
In no school had I intimation of the sufficient prevalence of measles amongst children
attending them to close even one of the infant departments.
During the year the Council made a recommendation to the London County Council that
the provisions of Sections 60 to 65 inclusive, Sections 68 and 69, and 70 to 74 inclusive of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, with respect to dangerous infectious diseases should also
apply to measles in the administrative County of London. This order was made by the London
County Council and duly approved by the Local Government Board, and came into force from
and including the 1st April this year (1903).
The following is a brief summary of the Sections above referred to :—
Section 60 gives power to sanitary authorities to require the cleansing and disinfection of
infected houses or parts of houses and the disinfection or destruction of infected articles, and
requires them to pay compensation for articles destroyed or for unnecessary damage caused by disinfection,
and to provide, free of charge, temporary accommodation for the shelter of persons
during the disinfection of the dwellings.
Section 61 enables sanitary authorities to require infected bedding, clothing or other
articles to be delivered up to them for disinfection or destruction, and provides that they shall
pay compensation for any unnecessary damage or for any articles destroyed. Any person failing to
comply with a notice by the sanitary authority under this section is liable to a fine not exceeding
Ten Pounds.
Section 62 prohibits persons from knowingly casting, or causiug or permitting to be cast,
infectious rubbish into ashpits without previous disinfection. Any person infringing the
provisions of this section is liable to a fine not exceeding Five Pounds, and to a further fine of
Forty Shillings for every day during which the offence continues after notice of such provisions
has been served on the master of the house by the sanitary authority, which shall on his request
provide for the removal and disinfection or destruction of the aforesaid rubbish.
Section 63 prohibits persons, under a penalty not exceeding Twenty Pounds, from
knowingly letting houses or parts of houses in which infected persons have been lodging
until such premises have been disinfected, and until all infected articles therein have been
disirfected or destroyed.
For the purposes of this section the keeper of an inn shall be deemed to let for hire part
of a house to any person admitted as a guest into such inn.
Section 64 provides that any person letting, or showing for the purpose of letting, a
house or part of a house, who knowingly makes a false statement as to a case of infectious
disease being, or having within six weeks previously been, therein, shall be liable to a fine not
exceeding Twenty Pounds, or to a months's imprisonment with or without hard labour.