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Board, Teachers and Visitors; but several of the cases
reported on suspicion turned out to be not ill of fever, parents
having been misinformed, or having deceived the Visitor. Deceit
may have been practised to excuse the children's absence from
School, or to screen parents from prosecution; but in several cases
it was stated that a ("Provident") Dispensary Doctor had at a
first attendance—and often there was but one attendance—expressed
the opinion that a certain case was, or would prove to be, one of
scarlet fever; and even when the case continued under treatment
and did not turn out to be infectious, the error was not corrected,
and the child was kept an unduly long time away from school.
Facts of this sort which came to my knowledge led me to comment
on the so-called
"Provident Dispensaries" and their Influence on the
Spread oF Infectious Diseases in connexion with a discussion
with regard to them, which took place in one of the
medical journals. These institutions, if they may be so termed,
are not dispensaries at all in the commonly accepted sense, but
simply private business speculations. They have not proved of
any benefit in this parish in the way of preventing the spread of
infectious disease, e.g., by increasing facilities for the poor obtaining
medical advice at a cheap rate. On the contrary, many cases
of illness have occurred in connexion with these establishments
which, but for their existence, would have come under the observation
of the District Poor-Law Medical Officers, and would have
been removed to hospital. We have not received information of
illness from their proprietors, nor can I say that they have shown
any great anxiety to further the efforts of the Inspectors to remove
cases to hospital when discovered, but rather the reverse. It was
reported, moreover, that in some instances at least, the medical
assistance rendered to sick children was of a purely nominal
character—the mother having to report progress at the Dispensary
from time to time when fetching fresh supplies of medicine. In
one period of four weeks 17 out of 52 cases in the North district
were "Dispensary" patients; three of them died, and not one of
them was removed to hospital, nor was one of the cases reported
till concluded.