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11
in 1889. In this year the Infectious Disease Notification
Act became law, and there followed in quick succession the
Infectious Disease Prevention Act in 1890 and the Isolation
Hospital Act in 1893. These three acts were passed not
primarily for the care and treatment of the individual, but
for the protection of the public by the isolation of persons
suffering from infectious diseases.
It was not until the year 1907 that the individual
came to be considered in the general scheme of
public health. In this year two important Acts were passed,
namely, the Notification of Births Act and the Education
(Administrative Provisions) Act, under which latter the
medical inspection of school children is carried on and
power given to make arrangements for attending to their
health and physical condition.
The Saving in Lives and Money.
It would be difficult to assess the exact part that each
of the measures passed since 1875 has played in improving
the national health, but so far as Willesden is concerned
the broad fact is that the death-rate in 1875 was 21.4 per
1,000 and in 1914, 10.51 per 1,000.
In other words, if Willesden people had died at the
same rate in 1914 as in 1875, 1,814 additional deaths would
have been recorded. This saving of lives has a commercial
value.
Dr. Farr in 1876, in the 39th Annual Report of the
Registrar-General, reckoned that the mean net value of each
male person in the community was £150, as estimated by
the standard of the agricultural labourer of that day. For
the whole population, including females, he thought the
standard might be lowered to £110.
It should be noted that Willesden is an urban and
generally educated community as compared with the agricultural
labourer class of 1876, and that consequently these