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No occasion has arisen for this Authority to act in the way of
closure of schools; where any such action has been taken it has been
done by the School Medical Officers of the London County Council, and
has then ordinarily been limited to the closure of either a department
or one or more classrooms, and the cause has usually been measles.
As heretofore, all absences of children from school which might be
due to infectious disease are visited, appropriate action being taken
when necessary. Difficulty, however, has arisen where a definite
notification of infectious disease has been made by a school medical
officer when examining children at school. The child often is
apparently well, and the parents, backed up by their own doctor,
come down to know the reason of exclusion. It has sometimes
been a delicate matter to decide and to keep the peace, and it would
certainly make for smoother working if information of such cases
were given to the Borough Council in another way than by a formal
notification.
The cleansing station continues in its work, but, owing to a
change of method of dealing with verminous children, the London
County Council has pressed for the appointment of an additional
woman help. The expense of this is almost certain to lead to such
expenditure by the Borough Council that the station will be run at a
loss to the ratepayers of Camberwell. It will naturally be said that,
whether from the central or whether from the local authority, the
money comes out of the ratepayers' pocket, but here it comes from
Camberwell only, and in the former from the common purse of
London. The matter is at present still under discussion, but it is
to be hoped that it will not be decided without considering whether
the old agreement, which involved a considerable expenditure, was
not made on the understanding that the circumstances then
obtaining would continue.
Milk Supply.
The conditions of the milk supply remains much the same; if
anything, the position of the combines is strengthened and the
greater bulk of the milk coming into Camberwell is distributed
through their agencies. Having dealt with this subject in previous
reports it is unnecessary to make more than a passing reference
to it.
Samples of milk were taken by your inspector for the purpose
of bacteriological examination and several of them were found to
show evidence of serious contamination. The results obtained by
no means accorded with others taken by the firms concerned. One
of these, indeed, went so far as to suggest that notice be given of
the time and place at which it was intended to take a sample,
ostensibly that they could bring sterile bottles and take a sample
at the same time.
There were 874 inspections of milkshops during the year
compared with 779 in 1920. If only the simple precautions were
adopted by milkers, which really amount to nothing more than
strict cleanliness, one would certainly be able to get some improve-