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69
BACTERIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS.
In connection with Infectious or Zymotic Diseases,
mention may be made of the fact that the Vestry have
decided to have fitted up for the use (free of cost) of the
medical men of Lambeth, a Bacteriological Laboratory
where the bacteriological diagnosis of doubtful cases of
typhoid, diphtheria, tuberculosis, &c., may be carried out.
The Medical Officer presented a Special Report on the
subject (copy of which is to be found at p. 14 of the
Appendix), and this Report, with its recommendations, was
adopted by the Vestry on December 8th, 1898.
The importance and value of bacteriological examinations
in doubtful cases of cholera, diphtheria, typhoid, and
tuberculosis, are now universally acknowledged, and much
good is, consequently, expected to accrue from the work to
be carried out in Lambeth Parish.
The laboratory is to be fitted up for the present at the
Wanless Road Disinfecting Station (where a suitable
room is unoccupied); and being in the centre of the
Parish will be equally convenient for all the medical
practitioners. It is clear that a local laboratory for
Lambeth alone will give much better, cheaper, and
quicker results than a central laboratory for the whole of
London, as suggested by the London County Council.
Indeed, past experience of the difficulties that at times arise
in connection with the Asylums Board and the removal of
infectious cases to hospital, owing to Lambeth having to
take turn with other Parishes, more than warrants the
Vestry in having taken the step they have in establishing
a laboratory which shall be purely local.