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recede from the position they had taken up, for on my calling
their attention to the omission on the part of the Visitors
to report cases, the "divisional members," to whom my
communication had been referred, simply agreed that the
Visitors should report cases when they had reason to suppose
that no duly qualified medical man was in attendance.
"When a duly qualified medical man has charge of a case,
they are not prepared to do more than take steps for seeing
that proper precautions are taken at the Schools." This
decision, if final and acted upon, would be regretable, as I
am sure the Visitors could render us essential assistance by
giving effect to the original instructions of the Board. Two
out of seven Visitors officiating in Kensington have supplied
information of a not inconsiderable number of cases during
the past year.
6. Clergymen and District Visitors not unfrequently report cases
of sickness.
7. The Resident Medical Officers of St. George's and St. Mary's
Hospitals report the admission of cases, or the application
of inadmissible cases, of illness from houses in this parish.
8. Occasionally anonymous communications are the source of
information, for I have not felt at liberty to disregard such
communications which have generally proved accurate.
In one or other of these several ways cases come to our knowledge;
but, all told, they form only a small percentage of total
cases, as proved by the fact that the great majority of fatal cases
remain concealed till after registration of death—a fact from which
it is a fair inference that a still larger proportion of non-fatal cases
never come to our knowledge at all.
The only remedy for this regretable state of affairs is legislation
to ensure the compulsory disclosure of the occurrence of infectious
diseases, a subject which is fully dealt with further on.