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rich and another for the poor, requested the President of the Local
Government Board, under date March 9,1885, to take measures
for obtaining for Sanitary Authorities the necessary powers to
enable them to secure notification. Either by a general Act
embodying the Model Clause of the Select Committee, or by an
Act to give such Authorities the means of obtaining the powers
without the necessity of applying for a Local Act; which might be
done, as above stated, by a general Act which they could bring
into force themselves, or by the power of making bye-laws.
The Board promised “attention,” and there the matter dropped.
VOLUNTARY NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS
DISEASES.
Whilst awaiting the advent of a system of compulsory notification
of infectious diseases, constant efforts have been made, since
my appointment in 1871, to obtain, by “voluntary notification,”
information of the occurrence of such diseases, and it will not be
out of place here to recapitulate the sources from which information
is now received.
1. By virtue of an arrangement entered into between your Vestry and the
sub-district registrars, in 1871, I receive notice of every death from the
graver infectious diseases (small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhus,
enteric and simple continued fevers), immediately after registration.
When a death from an infectious disease has occurred, there is always
a probability of finding cases of illness in the same house or in the
locality, and such discovery not unfrequently results from the Sanitary
Inspector's visit, made, as it is, without loss of time. (Occasionally the
registration of a death is unduly delayed—sometimes, apparently, with
the object of temporary concealment of the cause of death ; it would
be well, therefore, if registration within a limited period, say twentyfour
hours, were made compulsory.)
2. The Relieving Officers, by direction of the Board of Guardians, report
cases of dangerous infectious disease that come to their knowledge, and
generally these are cases that have been, or are about to be, removed to
the hospitals of the Asylums Board.
3. The Asylums Board report small-pox and fever cases admitted into their
hospitals, by sending immediate notice of each case to the local Medical
Officer of Health. They also forward, weekly, to every Medical Officer
of Health in the Metropolis, a complete list of admissions to their land
and river hospitals during the previous seven days.