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47
With regard to the Committee's Report generally I may remark
that, although it has caused some disappointment by its meagreness,
the adoption of legislation on the lines marked out in the recommendations
would constitute a distinct advance in the right
direction. In respect of "notification" especially, it is important
to observe that the Committee had "little difficulty in
forming their opinion that the time has arrived when provisions
of law on this subject may be sanctioned at least in the more
important urban sanitary districts." It is not without significance,
moreover, that some of the powers sought by local Sanitary
Authorities were refused on the ground that they were "premature,"
as the "powers for providing hospital accommodation, and for the
compilation of bye-laws open to the promoting authorities under
various Acts, had been inadequately used."
The general Bill to secure Notification, in England, introduced
by Mr. Hastings, has not as yet got so far as the second reading.
In this Bill it is proposed to place the duty of "notification" on
the medical man in attendance upon the infectious sick person,
and it is noteworthy that the Select Committee have recommended
the adoption of this plan in the model clause (quoted above from
Appendix I.) for the private Acts. Mr. Hastings, it may be
mentioned, was a member of the Select Committee.
HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION FOR THE INFECTIOUS
SICK.
In previous Reports I have referred to the difficulties of the
Metropolitan Asylums Board, arising out of the litigation forced
upon them by parties who hold that the hospitals of the Board,
so far from being useful to the community for the intended
purpose of arresting the spread of infectious diseases, are the
chief agents in perpetuating such diseases, and especiallysmall-pox.
Hampstead Hospital had long been closed as a result of the
proceedings commenced in 1876, to which reference has already
been made, and the difficulties of the Managers appeared to
culminate upon the granting of an interim injunction under which
Fulham Hospital was practically closed towards the end of 1881,
under circumstances already set out.