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98
A like communication was sent to the Metropolitan
Asylums Board, the Managers, moreover, having been kept
informed of your Vestry's proceedings through my monthly
reports, a copy of which had been regularly forwarded to each
member of the Board.
Here it may be mentioned that I brought the subject to
the attention of the Society of Medical Officers of Health at the
Annual Meeting held on Friday, October 21st, with the result
that the following Resolutions were unanimously adopted:—
"(1) That in the opinion of this Society, compulsory notification of Infectious
Diseases enforced by legislative enactment would be conducive to the
interests of public health, tending, as it would, to check and prevent the
spread of Infectious Diseases by promoting isolation in the homes of the sick,
and by removal of the sick to hospital when necessary, and also by securing the
opportunity for speedy disinfection of infected houses, clothing, bedding, &c.
"(2) That this Society, having been informed that the Kensington Vestry
have requested the President of the Local Government Board to bring in a
Bill, General or Local (Metropolitan), to provide for compulsory notification,
do address a communication to the Board in support of the said request, and
that a communication intimating its approval of the principle of compulsory
notification be addressed to the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and to the
several Vestries and District Boards, together with a request that they would
be pleased to support the Kensington Vestry's application to the Local
Government Board."
The Society's resolutions were forwarded to the Asylums
Board on the same day as the subject was to come before the
Board on 22nd October, when, upon the motion of Mr. Acworth,
the General Purposes Committee were directed
"To consider the propriety of addressing a communication to the
Local Government Board, urging that Board to take the necessary steps
for the extension to the Metropolis of the system of compulsory Notification
of Infectious Disease . . . with power, should they see fit, to
address such a communication . . . and to communicate on the subject
with the several Boards of Guardians, Vestries, and District Boards
of Works."
The Committee,which comprises the whole of the Managers,
met on the 25th October, and on the next day a letter was
*The Council of the Sanitary Institute, on 27th October, upon my
motion, unanimously adopted identical resolutions.