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32 [Appendix. IV.
Act of 1875—the most comprehensive section of all—and practically limits the scope of all the
other sections of the Act of 1875 relating to infectious diseases to those specified in the Notification
Act of 1890.
The London Connty Council, in 1898, sought the views of the (then) Vestries and District
Boards as to the desirability of declaring measles to be a "dangerous infectious disorder." The
result appears to have been unsatisfactory, as in December last a further circular letter was sent out,
addressed to the Metropolitan Boroughs, on the same question. In the event of the disease being
added to the list of "dangerous infectious" disorders, it is intended that the provisions of Sections
60-66, 68-70, and 72-74 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, should be applied.* These
sections do not include either the notification of or the provision of hospital accommodation for the
disease, on both of which points there is much ground for debate. The application of the sections
would, however, enable proceedings to be taken to stop the exposure of infected children in the
streets and schools, and to enforce cleansing and disinfection of "premises and articles." It is more
than probable that if the disease were brought within the scope of preventive legislation, parents
and others would come to regard the disease as something not to be trifled with, would keep their
children at home, and not expose them, as so many do now, to the vicissitudes of the English
climate. Measles is a disease which every housewife can recognize, and consequently much
advantage might be expected to accrue if the Legislature would accept the view of the medical profession
that measles is a dangerous infectious disease, and impose penalties on those who wilfully
disregard the health of their own families and of the public generally
To any proposals to add the disease to the schedule for notification, it is customary to urge that
only a very small proportion of the cases receive medical attention. That may be granted, but it
has to be remembered that notification of infectious disease is the duty of the householder or
parent (as the case may be), and that, as has already been mentioned, measles is a disease which
every housewife recognizes. Consequently, were the disease notifiable, there would be a statutory
obligation on the parent or householder, even if no medical practitioner were in attendance. If the
public could be induced to report cases as soon as suspectcd, and to work with the local authorities in
the direction of home isolation (which would mean the segregation of all the younger members of
the family) and disinfection, a reduction in the prevalence and mortality of this disease might be
looked for, which would repay the trouble and inconvenience gone through. There is one other
inducement which can be urged. Besides the lives actually lost under present circumstances by
neglect or mismanagement of the disease, there are the children who survive, with their constitutions
more or less damaged. The special liability to lung disease which characterizes measles only
too often leads to tuberculosis, and there are other diseases (which need not here be specified) which
owe their inception to neglected attacks of measles. The adoption of measures calculated to reduce
the prevalence of the disease, and the exercise of greater care of those who are attacked, mean not
only the reduction in the actual number of deaths from measles, but also the protection of an
unknown number of young lives from unnecessary ill-health and loss of vitality.
* At the meeting of the Borough Council held on February 5th of the current year the Public Health Committee
submitted the following recommendation, which was adopted nem. con. by the Council:—
"That the London County Council be informed that the Council of the Borough of Paddington is in favour
of the inclusion of 'measles' in the term 'dangerous and infectious diseases,' for the purposes of
the Sections of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, set out in the Council's letter of December 16th
last, those of Section 66 being excepted."