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117
(Main Building), where he remained until May 27th, a danger
that will be guarded against in future, as the Guardians have
decided that all convalescents from the Infirmary shall now pass
through a period of quarantine or probation prior to returning
to the Main Building. In this connection, it may be noted that
the Medical Officer of the Schools (Dr. Alice Johnson), in a
special Report, dated March 14th, 1905, pointed out this danger,
and advised how to obviate it. The warning was disregarded,
both by the Schools Committee and by the Board of Guardians,
who refused, by resolution, to adopt their Medical Officer's advice.
Had this not been so, the present outbreak would have been
prevented, in that it would not have occurred in the way, and
through the channel, it did; and the labour and expenses to the
Guardians, and to the Borough Council, entailed in tracing and
verifying the origin of the outbreak, would have been avoided.
The actual wording of Dr. Alice Johnson's Report was as
follows:—
"I find it will be necessary to make a slight alteration in the
rules respecting the children who leave the Infirmary for the
Schools. It is a source of danger that they should continue as
at present, going straight back to the Schools from the Infirmary,
where they are in contact with children from the Receiving and
Probation Blocks, which nullifies the excellent institution of the
Receiving and Probation Blocks. I propose discharging them
into the Receiving Ward and thence to the Probation Ward,
where they will take their probation before re-entering the
Schools." The Schools Committee, after considering this Report,
resolved as follows:—"We are unable to recommend the
adoption of the proposal of the Medical Officer;" and this
resolution of the Schools Committee was adopted by the Board
of Guardians on April 12th, 1905.
It is an interesting fact to note, in passing, that Measles gained
entrance into the Main Building of the Schools from the
Infirmary during the Measles Outbreak 1902-3 (vide Annual
Health Report, 1903, Appendix, pp. 44, 45, 46) in exactly the
same way, viz., by children (convalescent from all diseases) being
allowed to return direct into the Main Building without passing
first through a probation or convalescent ward. At that time it
was pointed out to the Guardians by the Medical Officer of
Health that the Infirmary had helped to spread the Measles, and
that consequently "no intercommunication whatever should be
allowed to take place between (a) the Infirmary and the Isolation
Hospital, (b) the Main Buildings (children and officials) on the
one hand, and the Infirmary (children, patients or officials) on
the other hand" (vide Medical Officer of Health's Special Report).