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(Public Health Section), and the National Health Society. The
President promised to give the representations made to him
careful consideration; but little would have come of the great
effort that had been made, save for the removal of small-pox
cases out of London for treatment, which was an immediate result
of the deputation, and for the evidence it supplied of the
strong hold on public opinion which the subject had
obtained. Subsequently, the Asylums Board and the Metropolitan
Poor Law Guardians Association passed resolutions
in favour of Notification. And, ere long, similar utterances
proceeded from representatives of the Local Government
Board—from the Medical Officer in 1882, and from the
President in 1883. Not the least important testimony to the
value of Notification was that contained in the "Practical
Recommendations" of the Report of the Royal Commission
on Infectious Hospitals—in 1882. Parliament itself has
repeatedly signalised its appreciation of the value of the system
by enacting in Local Acts the model clauses of a Select Committee
of the House of Commons, providing for Notification,
which is now in force in nearly sixty towns having a population
largely exceeding that of London.
As no steps had been taken to provide for Notification in
London, your Vestry, upon my recommendation, in 1887,
resolved to make a further effort, by requesting the President
of the Local Government Board to bring in a Bill. The
Asylums Board, the Vestries and District Boards, the Society
of Medical Officers of Health, and the Sanitary Institute, were
asked to, and did, endorse the application. The obvious desire
of the Sanitary authorities to obtain this power, in aid of their
efforts to deal effectively with infectious diseases, was not without
effect on the Local Government Board, which, in November,
1887, caused a series of questions to be addressed to the
authorities of the towns where compulsory notification is in
force, as to the working of the system. No detailed account
of the replies has been published, but it is understood that they