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89
in advance of public opinion, of producing reaction. The Board
would be disposed to agree to general legislation in some form—
legislation to facilitate the application of the desired provisions by
local authorities. The Bill went beyond this, and it was not the
opinion of the Board that the time had yet come to give
universally the compulsory powers proposed, by absolute legislation.
After a few years experience of the working of such
provisions in the districts where they had been applied, and in the
other districts which would try them very shortly, then, after
investigation, the matter might be extended still further. The
Board was disposed to give local authorities who wanted compulsory
powers, the means of dealing with infectious diseases at once,
without the necessity of applying for a local Act; either by means
of a general Act, which they could bring into force themselves, or
else by giving them power to make bye-laws for that purpose.” *
The President expressed his willingness to support a
proposition to refer the Bill to a Select Committee. The Bill,
however, was opposed on the second reading, and the House
having been counted out the measure was dropped for the Session.
Prior to the reception of the deputation, the President had received
a so-called “Vigilance Association,” which desired to enlist his
influence in opposition to the Bill, on the ground of its interference
with the " liberty of the subject," indifferent or oblivious to the
fact, that the most democratic communities are precisely those
which are the most stringent in exercising such interference with
individual liberty when it is necessary for the general good. The
President subsequently received the Parliamentary Bills
* The Medical Officer of the Board, in his Annual Report for 1881-2, wrote on
this subject as follows: "Seeing how greatly the usefulness of Sanitary Action
in respect of infectious diseases must depend upon early knowledge of its
presence, I have had no hesitation in advising that this power (i.e., of obtaining
immediate information of the existence of infectious disease in any house), might
properly be possessed by any Sanitary Authority who wanted it, and who,
having made adequate arrangements for securing isolation and disinfection for
the district, was prepared to put to effectual use the knowledge which a system
of disease-notification would afford." It may be remembered that the Select
Committee on "Sanitary Regulations" (House of Commons, Session, 1882),
recommended that, " in any future amendment of the Public Act, powers"
(i.e., to secure "notification,") "should be extended to all Urban Sanitary
Authorities, or at least that means should be devised for clothing them with
such powers on application."