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obligatory on medical practitioners to disclose cases coming under
their cognizance, there was a doubt how it would work, and some
friction, it was feared, would occur in the relations of the Medical
Officer of Health with his professional brethren.
From a statement published by Dr. Littlejohn, the Medical
Officer, it appears that these fears have not been justified by the
event, but that, according to the general testimony, the scheme has
worked well, and to the public advantage. "Our experiment,"
he says, "has been a great success. No complaints have reached
us from the medical profession, who have loyally assisted the
authorities in carrying out what was feared to be an unworkable
and objectionable clause. The information as to the existence of
infectious disease has been prompt and effectual, which, I am convinced,
would not have been the case had we trusted in great part
to a poor ignorant population to supply it To the Health
Department the intimations have proved of great service.
enabling us to arrive at the true cause of outbreaks of infectious
diseases, and thus prevent their spread."
Encouraged by the successful results of legislation, not only at
Edinburgh, but more particularly in certain English towns and
boroughs, to wit—Huddersfield, Bolton,† Burton-on-Trent, Nottingham,
Jarrow, Llandudno, Warrington, Blackburn, Norwich,
Rotherham, Blackpool, Leicester, Derby, Lancaster, Oldham and
Preston, the Corporation of Dublin took up the question which
had been brought under their notice by the Lord Mayor, who had
received a deputation representing the Irish Branch of the British
Medical Association and the medical profession generally in Dublin,
to lay before him, as Chairman of the Public Health Committee,
the necessity of introducing a Bill in Parliament with the view of
making it compulsory to notify to the Sanitary Authority in Dublin
the presence of infectious disease in any house; and at a meeting
† The Medical Officer of Health of Bolton, in his Report for 1880, states that
the compulsory notification of infectious diseases in that borough during fifteen
months, has given every satisfaction, and proved of immense value in limiting the
spread of contagion. The cases reported amounted to 1,646, including 18 of
small-pox, 702 of scarlet fever, 5 of diphtheria, 102 of typhoid fever, 17 of typhus,
etc. But Bolton has no infectious disease hospital !