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If a demand could be created amongst the public only to purchase tinned
milks with guarantees and full directions printed upon the affixed wrappers of
the tins, the supply would soon follow, and be more effectual in preventing
infantile diarrhoea than any other means that could be suggested.
The affixed wrapper should guarantee that the milk is whole milk (not
skimmed) sterilised and condensed, and unsweetened, or not containing more
sugar than is necessary to approximate it to the composition of human milk.
The directions should be full and explicit as to the intervals of feeding and
the quantity to be used in every month of infant life, and detail the mode of
preparation and all the precautions to be taken.
MEASLES.
The Notification of Measles.—The London County Council, by circular letter
dated the 1st December, 1900, informed the Metropolitan Boroughs that the
Public Health Committee of the Council had under consideration the question
whether it is advisable that the Council should include "Measles" in the
term "Dangerous Infectious Disease," for the purposes of the Infectious
Diseases Prevention sections (particularly secs. 60 to 74) of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, and asked for a reply to the question—Whether the
Council of this Borough are in favour of the extension to measles of the
provisions contained in any of the above-mentioned sections, observing that these
sections do not relate to the question of notification.
This letter was before the Public Health Committee on the 12th December,
1900, and was referred to the Medical Officer of Health to report upon.
The Infectious Diseases Prevention sections of the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891, do not refer to notification; they refer to the compulsory cleansing
and disinfection of infected premises and contents (61 to 65), the compulsory
removal to hospital and detention of persons without proper accommodation
to prevent the spread of infectious disease (66 and 67), the prohibition under
penalty of the exposure of infected persons or things (68), the prohibition
under penalty of infected persons milking animals or picking fruit (69), the
prohibition under penalty of a person suffering from a dangerous infectious
disease riding in a public conveyance (70), the prohibition under penalty of
supplying milk from a dairy likely to spread dangerous infectious disease (71),
the prohibition to retain the body of a person dying of infectious disease in a
dwelling, sleeping or working-place, or to remove such a body from a hospital
to such a place, or to remove such a body in a public conveyance, other than a
hearse, without notifying the driver and subsequent disinfection (72 to 74).
These sections will be seen to fall under four heads, namely : (1) Power
to compel removal to hospital, (2) Power to compel cleansing and disinfection,
(3) Power to prosecute for exposure of infected persons and things, and,
(4) Powers with regard to infected dead bodies.
The Metropolitan Asylums Board has not made and does not appear to
intend to make any provision for the isolation of measles in hospitals, so that
all cases of measles will continue to be nursed at home. If for measles, disinfection
be made compulsory upon recovery, the Sanitary Authority will be
called upon to carry it out, to enforce it, to prosecute in cases of non-