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the certifying practitioner or in his practice as a medical officer of any public body or institution.
When the certificate refers to the inmate of a hospital it must specify the place from which and the
date at which the inmate was brought to the hospital. The Metropolitan Asylums Board is required to
send weekly to every medical officer of health, as well as to the County Council, returns of the infectious
diseases of which they receive certificates. The medical officer of health is required to send a copy of
the certificate to the head teacher of any school attended by the patient if a child, or by any child who
is an inmate of the same house as the patient. The provision of disinfecting apparatus and carriages
for the removal of infected articles by sanitary authorities is obligatory, and sanitary authorities may
combine for this purpose. The use of public conveyances for the removal of persons suffering from
dangerous infectious disease is prohibited. A person who knows himself to be suffering from a
dangerous infectious disease is prohibited from milking any animal, from picking fruit, or from
engaging in any occupation connected with food, or carrying on any trade or business in such a manner
as to be likely to spread the infectious disease. The power to recover the costs of persons suffering
from infectious disease in the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board is repealed.
The same power possessed by sanitary authorities for extending in their own districts the
provisions relating to infectious diseases to other diseases than those mentioned in the Act is, for the
purposes of extending such diseases over London as a whole, vested in the Council.
The provision of mortuaries by sanitary authorities is made obligatory, and the Council is empowered
to require the provision by such authorities of buildings for post-mortem examinations. Such
building may be provided in connection with a mortuary, and sanitary authorities may combine for the
purpose of providing mortuaries and buildings for post-mortem examinations. The Council is required
to provide proper accommodation for the holding of inquests, and is empowered to agree with sanitary
authorities to maintain places for inquests in connection with mortuaries.
The making and enforcing of by-laws for houses let in lodgings is made obligatory on sanitary
authorities. The law as to underground rooms is amended, the standard of requirement being increased.
The Council is given powers of supersession of any sanitary authority making default with respect
to the removal of any nuisance, the institution of any proceedings, or the enforcement of any by-law.
The Council may make representation to the Local Government Board if any sanitary authority have
made default in executing or enforcing any provisions which it is their duty to execute or enforce of
this Act, or of any by-law made under or in pursuance thereof, and the Local Government Board if
satisfied after due inquiry that the authority have been guilty of the alleged default and that the complaint
cannot be remedied under the other provisions of this Act, shall make an order limiting a time
for the performance of the duty of such authority in the matter of such complaint. If such duty is not
performed by the time limited in the order, the order may be enforced by writ of Mandamus, or the
Local Government Board may (except in the case of the Commissioners of Sewers) appoint the County
Council to perform such duty at the cost of the sanitary authority.
Every sanitary authority is required to appoint one or more medical officers of health and an
adequate number of sanitary inspectors, and the Council is required to pay a moiety of the salaries of
such medical officers and inspectors appointed or re-appointed after the passing of the Act. Where the
Local Government Board on a representation from the Council, and after local inquiry, are satisfied
that any sanitary authority have failed to appoint a sufficient number of sanitary inspectors the Board
may order the anthority to appoint such number of additional sanitary inspectors and to allow them
such remuneration as the order directs, and the sanitary authority shall comply with the order.
Evidence of previous experience during three years in a district of London, or an urban district out
of London containing at the last census not less than 20,000 inhabitants, or the possession of a
certificate of a body approved by the Local Government Board, is required in the case of every sanitary
inspector appointed after the 1st of January, 1895.
The sanitary authorities are defined as the Commissioners of Sewers, the vestries and district
boards, the Local Board of Woolwich, and in any place mentioned in schedule (c) to the Metropolis
Management Act, 1855, the board of guardians for such place or for any parish or poor law union of
which it forms part, or if there is no such board of guardians the overseers of the poor of such place,
or for the said parish in which it is situate, and the guardians and overseers respectively shall have the
same powers for the purposes of this Act as a vestry or district board have under this Act, and their
expenses shall be defrayed in the same manner as the expenses of the execution of the Acts relating to
the relief of the poor are defrayed in the said place.
Shirley F. Murphy,
Medical Officer of Health.