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1904]
102
But there is also another light in which to look on this question, which
is that isolation in hospital prevents an enormous dislocation of school work,
as well as of business, especially of businesses where food stuffs or drinks are
sold, and where clothing is made.
It is a sine qua non in all school codes that children shall not attend school
from houses in which there is a case of Scarlet Fever, and consequently whenever
a case is notified to a Medical Officer of Health one of his first acts is to enquire
the names of the schools attended by the children living on the premises, so
that he may forward them to the school teacher. He has no option but to do
this, for the London Public Health Act, sec. 55 (4), provides that the Medical
Officer of Health shall within 12 hours after the receipt of a certificate send
information to the head teacher of the school attended by the patient (if a
child), or by any child who is an inmate of the same house as the patient.
It is his implied duty also to inform the parents of the children that they
are not to attend school until seven days have elapsed after the disinfection of the
premises, for the London County Council Schools' Code provides that "it will
be necessary for a further period (that is after disinfection) of seven days to
elapse before the return of such children to school."
Consequently, if the infected child were not removed to hospital every child
in the house would be compelled to remain at home until the patient had completely
recovered, and until a week after the premises had been disinfected,
that is to say for a period varying from six weeks to three months—a state of
affairs that would be intolerable. Again, if the patients were not removed
to hospital, businesses where food and drink are sold would be ruined, apart
from which disadvantage great danger would accrue to the public. Once it
got noised abroad, and it would be difficult to keep it secret because of the
visits of the Medical Officer of Health or the Sanitary Inspector, customers
would cease to buy and would purchase their food or drink elsewhere, fearing
lest they should contract the infection. It is of course quite possible that there
may be very little risk to the public in those businesses in which the females
of the household are not employed, because they do not serve in the shop or
handle the goods; but there is a very real danger in those businesses where
the mother and the daughters, but particularly the former, take an active part
in selling the wares, because they are the persons who in nearly every instance
nurse the patients. And even when they do not, and when the mothers
profess that if their children are not removed to hospital they will not enter
the rooms where the patients lie ill, can any thinking person believe for a