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23
PREVENTION OF CONSUMPTION.
As the report on this subject which I prepared was included in my Annual Report for the
year 1902, on pages 32 to 37 in order that each member of the Council might have a copy, there is no
necessity to again include it in the report for this year. The subject received careful attention from
the Public Health Committee and the Council on several occasions during the year, and the Public
Health Committee at its meeting on the 30th November, 1903, recommended that the voluntary
notification should in the first instance be put into force for a period of twelve months from the Ist
January, 1904, the fees to be paid being the same as for the notifiable diseases. This recommendation
was approved and adopted by the Council, and the Town Clerk was instructed to communicate it to
the medical practitioners residing or practising in the Borough.
The Town Clerk has also been making enquiries with a view to ascertaining on what terms
arrangements could be made for the examination of sputum in doubtful cases.
In New York after nearly three years of voluntary notification, the notification was made
compulsory in January, 1897. It is also compulsory in Norway and Saxony, and is reported to be
working satisfactorily.
In Sheffield, the Corporation last year secured the sanction of Parliament for the compulsory
notification of phthisis for a period of seven years.
SPITTING.
My recommendation that the Council should co-operate with other Metropolitan Borough
Councils in order to secure the passing of a bye-law to prohibit spitting in all places of public resort
fortunately became unnecessary before the report was finally considered by the Council; for on the
10th July, 1903, the London County Council in pursuance of powers under the Municipal Corporations
Act, 1888 and the Local Government Act, 1888, made the following bye-law:—
" No person shall spit on the floor, side or wall of any public carriage, or of any public
hall, public waiting room, or place of public entertainment, whether admission thereto be
obtained upon payment or not.
" Any person who shall offend against this bye-law shall be liable for each offence to a
fine not exceeding Forty shillings."
In my report I also advised that the Council should draw attention of owners of common
lodging houses, public houses, restaurants and workshops, to the danger which is known to arise from
indiscriminate spitting, and that an offer he made to supply cards of warning. I am glad that this
recommendation was adopted by the Council, and the Town Clerk was instructed to have the same
printed and distributed throughout the Borough.
The following is a copy of the card:—
The Metropolitan Borough of Holborn.
SPITTING.
YOU ARE EARNESTLY REQUESTED TO ABSTAIN FROM THE
DANGEROUS AND OBJECTIONABLE HABIT OF SPITTING.