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4
Effects of the exceptional Season.
The absence of fog, the mildness of the temperature,
the frequent washing of the dusty town air, and the
flushing of drains and sewers by the heavy rainfall, are
combined influences which may account for the unusual
absence of notifiable infectious maladies and the feeble
mortality from chest complaints as shown in Table I, The
ordinary death rate for January for zymotic diseases is about
2.6 per 1,000; but January of 1899 gives a death rate of
about l.8. A far greater reduction is shown in the figures
for chest complaints; from an average January death-rate
of 5.6, the rate has sunk to just under 2 per 1,000, or if the
death-rate for all diseases be considered, then there is to be
seen a reduction of nearly 5 per 1,000.
A Sanitary Officer's Power of Entry.
A very important decision has been given in the
Queen's Bench Division, January 18th, 1899, before
Lawrance and Channell, L.J.J., in a St. Pancras case (Mabel
Mary Vines v. the North London Collegiate and Camden
School for Girls), which renders clear the exact powers of
entry of a Sanitary Officer under the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891.
The main facts of the case are as follows:—Miss
Vines, a Sanitary Inspector of the St. Pancras Authority,
applied for admission into the North London School, for the
purpose of ascertaining whether any nuisance existed, or
whether there was any infraction of the bye-laws. This
admission was refused. An application was made under
the Act (sect. 115, subs. 3) to a Stipendiary Magistrate
(Mr. Plowden), to issue a warrant for entry, the Act stating
that "if a Justice is satisfied, by information on oath,
that there is reasonable ground for such entry, and that
there has been a failure or refusal to admit to such premises,
and that reasonable notice of the intention to apply to a
Justice for a warrant has been given, the Justice may, by
warrant under his hand, authorize the Sanitary Authority,
or their Officers, or other person, as the case may require,
to enter the premises." The Inspector, before the
Magistrate, did not state that a nuisance was suspected, but