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referred to in your letter of 14th March last, are covered by the
term "puerperal fever" in section 55 of the Act and notifiable as
such.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
C. J. STEWART,
Clerk of the Council.
The Clerk of the Vestry
of Bethnal Green.
COUNCIL, 29th November, 1898.
Report of the Public Health Committee.
puerperal fever.
* 2.—We have had under consideration a letter from the Vestry
of Bethnal Green, asking the Council to add to the list of notifiable
diseases named in section 55 of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891, the names of diseases included under the head of puerperal
fever by the Registrar-General as follows—
Both peritonitis and metritis when occurring in connection with
parturition, as well as puerperal pyaemia, puerperal septicaemia,
and puerperal sapraemia.
Eleven other sanitary authorities have also written in support of
the proposal, while one has txpressed an adverse opinion, and
another has made an alternative suggestion.
We understand that many medical practitioners regard the five
diseases mentioned by the Vestry as being merely various types of,
and all included in the term, "puerperal fever" in section 55, but
that in the proceedings instituted by the Vestry against a medical
practitioner who failed to notify a case of puerperal peritonitis, the
magistrate held that puerperal peritonitis was not included in the
disease called puerperal fever in section 55.
If these diseases are all covered by the term " puerperal fever," it
is of course unnecessary for the Council to pass any such resolution