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Council will undoubtedly be in a position to prepare Bye-laws
which will, if uniformly enforced throughout the County, prove to
be a valuable addition to the sanitary regulation of London."
I may, perhaps, be permitted to add that, in an Address which
I delivered before the Society of Medical Officers of Health,
in October, 1884, I dwelt strongly upon the importance of Byelaws
being framed under the provisions of section 202 of the
Metropolis Management Act, 1855, and that in April, 1889, I
sent a copy of the Address to each member of the Council.
In their Annual Report, the Sanitary Committee say that they
" cannot too strongly emphasize their opinion that the London
County Council should be empowered to frame Bye-laws for
the proper sanitary government of London; that the new
District Councils, or the existing local bodies, should put them
in force, and that the County Council should be the supervisory
body to see that they are properly carried out," a Scheme
which corresponds closely to my proposals in the Address above
adverted to wherein I advocated, with the view to bringing about—
Unity in Sanitary Administration, the establishment
of a "Central Board to take charge of all great
matters affecting the Metropolis as a whole, to lay down
the principles on which sanitary administration should
be carried out, by passing bye-laws, &c., and generally
to exercise a supervisory control over the work entrusted
by the Local Management Acts to the Vestries and
District Boards." The Central Board, I added, "would,
so to say, be legislative in its functions, the Local
Boards executive, and thus substantial unity might be
attained with a minimum of change."*
With regard to the present state of Sanitary Administration
in the Metropolis, the Sanitary Committee of the County Council
with the courage of youth, assert that until the halcyon days of
* Inaugural Address on Metropolitan Sanitary Administration delivered
before the Society of Medical Officers of Health, October, 1883.