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to the operation of regulations in certain metropolitan parishes
and provincial towns. Meanwhile I had brought the subject
before the Society of Medical Officers of Health, and the Society,
after full consideration, came to the following conclusions:—That
the Acts are practicable ; that they should be put into operation
in London and other large towns; and that regulations for the
Metropolis should be uniform. The Society undertook to make
a pattern code, and the matter having been referred to the
Council I was requested to prepare a draft. This having been
done, the draft was sent for consideration to nearly two hundred
medical officers of health. Suggested amendments having been
duly considered, the draft code was finally approved by the
Society, and, in May, 1879, published for the guidance of Urban
•Sanitary Authorities.
In June 1879, the Special Purposes Committee reported,
recommending that the "regulations framed by the Society of
Medical Officers of Health be adopted by the Vestry, and forwarded
to the Local Government Board for confirmation." The
report was referred back for further consideration. As already
mentioned, the Committee had requested me, in April, 1879, to
ascertain to what extent the Acts had been adopted in other
parishes and provincial towns; and the result of my inquiries
having been to show that they had been adopted in few places,
metropolitan or provincial, and that in the majority of such places
regulations had been carried out in a perfunctory manner, the
Committee finally advised, and your Vestry resolved in July, that
it was not expedient at that time to adopt the Acts. Your
Vestry were influenced to some extent, in coming to this decision,
by a report that the Local Government Board contemplated
framing model bye-laws for the guidance of sanitary authorities,
the issue of which it was thought desirable to await; possibly
also by the fact that the Board had never exercised the power,
conferred by the Act of 1874, which enabled them to declare the
enactments in force in any district. Model regulations for
"Houses let in Lodgings" were issued by the Board in the
following year (1880), framed with regard to section 90 of the