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which (practically denied to no person) can only be obtained on the
order of a relieving officer, or the master of a workhouse.
3. Similar information is given by the Resident Medical Officer of the
sington Dispensary, by request of the Committee of Management. We
seldom hear of sickness through any similar institution ; and it is a
matter of regret that many cases that ought to be removed to the hospitals
are treated at home by medical men attached to so.called " provident
dispensaries."
4. Medical men favour me occasionally with information of cases, especially
when they desire assistance in order to get patients (e.g., domestic
servants) removed to hospitals; or when they want the assistance of the
disinfecting staff.
5. In my annual report for 1877 I referred to what I considered an
portant step then lately effected through the action of the London
School Board, which, at my request, had instructed the Superintendents
of Divisions throughout the Metropolis to desire the “Visitors"
to report to the Medical Officers of Health all cases of infectious
disease that should come to their knowledge in the discharge of their
official duties, which take them frequently into the homes of the
poorer classes. To facilitate the transmission of this information by
the Visitors your Vestry authorized me to prepare a form for their use.
This was done; but I must say that hitherto the resolution of the
Board has not been attended with all the hoped.for results. The Board
moreover, at one time, showed a disposition to 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
regrettable, as I am sure the Visitors could render us essential assistance
by giving effect to the original instructions of the Board. Some
of the Visitors officiating in Kensington have supplied information of
a not inconsiderable number of cases during the past year.
6. Clergymen, District Visitors, and School Teachers occasionally 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 infectious 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 frequently proved accurate.