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101
(1) "How many cases of each of the specified diseases
were notified to the authority; (a) in the year
1886; and (b) during the first eleven months of 1887.
(2) "What procedure is adopted on the receipt of the
notification.
(3) "Whether it is believed that to any considerable
extent there has been a failure to give the requisite
notification.
(4) "What are the practical difficulties, if any, which
have arisen in connection with the system;
(5) "What is believed to be the general result as
regards the limitation of the spread of Infectious
Disease, and
(6) "In what points, if any, the system appears to
require amendment."
The Board also desired to be furnished with information as
to the expense attending the working of the system, and also
with any observations and suggestions which the Sanitary
Authority thought might be of assistance in the consideration
of the subject generally.
At the present writing, I do not know the results of the
Board's inquiry, which may be assumed to have been instituted
on the advice of the Medical Department. But as the Board will
naturally be influenced in any decision they may come to by the
counsels of their Medical Officer, it may be well, in conclusion,
to repeat that Dr. Buchanan considers that ''power of obtaining
compulsory information of the existence of infectious disease in
a house" may properly be "possessed by any Sanitary
Authority who wanted it, and who having made adequate
arrangements for securing isolation and disinfection for the
district, is prepared to put to effective use the knowledge
which a system of disease-notification would afford." The
metropolis is admirably endowed with means of isolation; disinfection
is efficiently carried out, and a large majority of the