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Bearing in mind the difficulty of knowing at what stage of the disease
Scarlet Fever patients are free from infection, I informed the Committee that
it seemed surprising that so few cases are reported, and that in our experience
in the City these cases are rare. In these circumstances, I suggested that the
Metropolitan Asylums Board might be glad to receive the assurance that the
Corporation of London had every confidence in the manner in which the
Board conduct the administration of their hospitals; an opinion in which the
Committee concurred.
SANATORIA FOR CONSUMPTIVES.
Many of the Metropolitan Borough Councils having urged the Metropolitan
Asylums Board to establish a Sanatoria for Consumptives, the Board, in
December, 1903, issued a circular letter, stating that in view of the large
increase in expenditure it would involve, they hesitated to take any definite
action in the matter without some authoritative expression of opinion from
the Local Government Board. They stated they had written to the Local
Government Board to this effect, but we have not yet been acquainted with
the nature of the reply.
PREVENTION OF CONSUMPTION.
The several measures in force in the City for preventing the spread of
Consumption have been, as in 1903, in active operation during the past year.
Much good has ensued from the display of cautionary notices with a view of
checking the dangerous and disgusting practice of spitting.
There is an exceedingly active demand on the part of the Citizens for these
notices for exhibition both in private offices, work places, and public places.
Railway companies also show an increasing desire to assist the Corporation
in their efforts to protect the public from infection by Phthisis, and the more
general adoption by them of the vacuum method of cleaning railway carriages
must act as a great preventive.
At the present time almost every company coming into the City is using
this method of cleansing. It has been adopted by the Midland, London,
Brighton and South Coast, South Eastern and Chatham, Great Central, Great
Northern, Great Eastern, Central London, London and North Western, Great
Western, London and South Western, and the City and South London.
The Great Eastern Railway Company are particularly active in endeavouring
to keep their station at Fenchurch Street in a cleanly condition. This is no
easy undertaking, by reason of the volume of traffic in a very confined area,
and the class of persons travelling to and from the docks and riverside
stations. The platforms, which seem dangerously narrow in places, are