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owner's licenses. The purification of unwholesome dwellings
in which contagious diseases had been present, was
as usual vigorously carried out, especially during the
prevalence of Small Pox, when disinfectants were freely
used, and distributed to the poor where required. In
accordance with a memorial issued by Her Majesty's Privy
Council at the beginning of the year relative to the
epidemic of Small Pox, in which the Medical Officers of
Health were enjoined to put in force whenever necessary
the 28th section of the Sanitary Act, 1866, which empowers
any Justice to direct the removal to a hospital of
any poor person suffering from a dangerous, contagious
or infectious disorder, such person being without proper
lodging or accommodation, application was made to the
sitting magistrate for an order for the removal to hospital
of a patient suffering from Small Pox, under conditions
of such an exceptionally bad sanitary character as to
necessitate the application, The order was readily
obtained, but was resisted by the parents of the patient,
and after three days attendance at the police court,
it was found that the magistrate had no power to
enforce his own order. The circumstance, on account
of its great importance, is recalled to the recollection
of the Board, and it is earnestly hoped that so serious
a defect in the law will be remedied in the forthcoming
Public Health Act; otherwise one of the most
important powers possessed by the Board for the prevention
of the spread of contagious diseases, by means of
" isolation " of the sick from the healthy, will be rendered
completely futile.
The nuisance arising from the ventilation of the sewers,
continues the subject of general, and, it must be added,
well founded complaint. Although many remedies have
been suggested, and some tried with various degrees of
success, they have, without exception, been directed to
the mitigation of the evil only. For a defect so extensive,
a correspondingly comprehensive remedy is required, such