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25
NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
As notifications were frequently received of cases of infectious
diseases occurring in streets which were adjacent to the Parish, and
not belonging to it, some delay was occasioned thereby, and a full list
of the streets in the new Borough is therefore set out in an appendix,
for the benefit mainly of medical practitioners.
DISINFECTION.
The employment of formic aldehyde for the surface disinfection
of rooms continues to prove satisfactory. There is no reason to
believe that it has failed in its object in a single instance throughout
the year. There are no greater difficulties or inconveniences
attending its use than those which apply to the use of sulphurous
acid, and it possesses the great advantages that it is more certain
in its disinfectant action and does not injure any article of furniture
or ornamentation exposed to it.
There has been a large amount of disinfectant solution given
away during the year. This free distribution of disinfectant is of
high value as a means of preventing the spread of infectious illness,
and it is a necessary countermove to check the use of the cheap
and useless disinfectants otherwise purchased by the poorer
parishioners.
HOSPITAL ISOLATION.
During the year we experienced no difficulty in getting
parishioners into the hospital with promptness.
As the public become more educated in public health matters
and the value of preventive measures, it will demand some provision
for isolating Measles, Whooping Cough, and Consumption. Each of
these diseases is far more fatal than the mild type of Scarlet Fever
which has prevailed now for several years, and yet of the huge sums
spent annually to isolate infectious diseases in hospitals, it is no