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medical practitioners in London a communication, in a form satisfactory to the borough
councils, directing attention to the facilities available through the public health services for
the nursing of cases of measles in London.
(b) That the Council considers that until more experience has been gained of improved
arrangements for the detection and notification of measles through the school organisation, it
would not be desirable to adopt the proposal to make measles compulsorily notifiable by medical
practitioners throughout London; and that a representation to this effect be made to the
Minister of Health.
(c) That application be made to Parliament in the session of 1922 for such amendment of
section 19 of the London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1904, and sections 60 and 61
of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, as may be necessary in order to secure, by simple and
effective means, that in all cases in which a person is found to be infested with vermin (including
fleas, bugs, lice and itch mites), or a child is found by the local education authority to be infested
with such vermin or to be in a foul and filthy condition, the premises, bedding, clothing and
other articles in use by such person or child shall thereupon be liable to be compulsorily cleansed,
purified or destroyed.
(fZ) That the attention of the Minister of Health be drawn to the desirability of—
(i) An amendment of the Cleansing of Persons Act, 1897, requiring that the necessary
provision for dealing with persons affected with vermin or in a foul and filthy condition
should be made by each local sanitary authority.
(ii) Legislation empowering local authorities to inspect second-hand wearing apparel
in the hands of dealers, whether wholesale or retail; making it an offence knowingly to
deal in, or to hold with the apparent intention of dealing in, second-hand wearing apparel
in a verminous condition; and empowering local authorities to cleanse the same at the
post of the owner, or to deatroy the same without comnensation to him
In 1919 the attention of the Council was directed to the custom among undertakers of keeping
dead bodies at their premises for a considerable time awaiting, interment. Such practices are to some
extent regulated by section 89 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891. After careful investigation,
in consultation with the metropolitan borough councils, the Council decided that delay in such
matters had not occurred with sufficient frequency to justify action to secure additional powers
of control.
Retention of
dead bodies
at undertakers'
premises.
The Appeal Committee are the statutory appeal committee under the Metropolis Management
Act, 1855, section 212. The Committee also hear and decide all appeals made to the Council under any
other Act of Parliament (except appeals under section 20 (5) of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
against decisions of the Public Health Committee). During 1921 the Committee decided three appeals
under the Act of 1855.
Appeal
Committee.
The Council on 25th March, 1919,.appointed a special Committee to report what alterations and
extensions were desirable in the powers and duties of the different local authorities and other bodies,
both official and voluntary, responsible for performing health duties in London. The Special Committee
on 19th December, 1919, submitted a report dealing fully with the development of, and the serious
defects in, the present organisation of health services, with proposals for reconstruction.* The Council
agreed to the Committee's recommendations †, and on the same date authorised them to confer with
other authorities and bodies exercising health functions in London, with a view to the formulation of
detailed proposals based on these principles. Copies of the Special Committee's report and of the
Council's resolutions were sent to the Minister of Health, with a request that he would receive a deputation
from the Council, and also to the City Corporation, to each of the metropolitan borough councils, to
the Council of King Edward's Hospital Fund for London and to the metropolitan hospitals. The deputation
was received by the Minister of Health (The Rt. Hon. Christopher Addison, M.D., M.P.) on 23rd
April, 1920, when he commented favourably on the general lines on which, in the Council's considered
opinion, the development of health administration in London should proceed, and suggested that a
conference between the Council and the metropolitan borough councils should be convened to discuss the
whole question.‡ Early in 1921 the metropolitan borough councils held a conference on the subject and
passed certain resolutions not entirely consistent with those passed by the Council.
Health
administration
in
London.
The Diseases of Animals Acts, 1894 to 1911, the object of which is the suppression of contagious
diseases in animals, naturally do not affect London so much as the country. In London, apart from
swine fever, attention is now principally directed to glanders, anthrax, rabies, and parasitic mange,
diseases which are communicable to man. The Acts are supplemented by Orders issued by the Ministry
of Agriculture and Fisheries. The following table shows for the year 1921 the incidence of the principal
animal diseases so far as London is concerned:—
Diseases of
animals.
Disease Number of Number of animals
outbreaks. attacked by disease.
Glanders, including farcy 3 16
Swine fever 10 —*
Anthrax 1 1
Parasitic mange 218 414
The munber of swine involved in these outbreaks was 427.
Glanders is the disease in animals which has caused most trouble and expense to the Council.
The disease is now dealt with under the Glanders or Farcy Order of 1920, which requires veterinary
surgeons, etc., who consider that any horse, ass, or mule is affected with glanders, or was so affected when
Glanders or
Farcy.
* Report of the Special Committee on Health Administration in London. No. 2000. Price 3d.
† These are set out in the Annual Report of the Council, 1920, vol. III., pp. 116-117.
‡ Report of the Special Committee on Health Administration in London. No. 2029. Price 2d.
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