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ing them with such powers on application. In that Session
(1882), and in every subsequent Session, the Model Clause was
inserted in Local Acts, provisions of a similar nature having
been incorporated in preceding Local Acts, so that, in all, some
forty-eight towns, with a population exceeding four millions,
now possess the desired powers,
In the Session of 1883, a general Bill "To provide for the
better Notification of Infectious Diseases" was introduced by
private Members. This Bill was drawn upon the lines of the
Model Clause, the duty of reporting cases to the Medical Officer
of Health being thrown upon the medical attendant and the
householder equally—the so-called "dual system." A deputation
having waited upon the Local Government Board in
support of the Bill, the President signified his willingness to
agree to general legislation to facilitate the application of the
desired provisions by Local Authorities, but he said that the
Board were of opinion that the time had not yet come to give
universally the compulsory powers proposed,by absolute legislation.
The Board, in other words, were prepared 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 create 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, it
was dropped. No similar measure of a general character had
been introduced by private Members, and the Board had done
nothing in the matter up to the close of 1887.
But year by year the subject has been before Parliament;
for in every Session the House of Commons has ordered the
appointment of a Committee to consider "all Private Bills
promoted by Municipal and other Local Authorities, by which
it is proposed to create powers relating to Police and Sanitary