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beneficial legislation comprised in the Infectious Disease
(Notification) Act, 1889, and the Poor Law Act, 1889. Under
the first-named Act, he observes that the Managers receive
information from the Medical Officers of Health with respect
to cases of infectious disease in their several districts, which,
after being tabulated, is circulated amongst the same Medical
Officers, thus keeping them informed of the progress of disease,
from week to week, in all portions of the Metropolis, and,
therefore, in districts adjoining their own, thus enabling them
to take prompt measures for the eradication of disease. The
returns supplied to the Board by the Medical Officers, he adds,
are useful to the Managers also, as affording "authentic
information" as to infectious disease in the Metropolis as a
whole; as by comparing the cases admitted into their hospitals
with the total number notified, they are assisted in "regulating
the accommodation at their disposal in a more satisfactory and
comprehensive manner than could otherwise be the case."
"Scarcely less important" to the Managers is the Poor Law Act,
1889, "which removes the disabilities under which they had
been placed in the performance of that portion of their duties
which has reference to the provision of accommodation for the
treatment of infectious disease. The Managers are now
enabled (a) to admit non-paupers reasonably believed to be
suffering from fever, small-pox, or diphtheria; (b) to admit
pauper patients suffering from diphtheria; (c) to purchase, compulsorily,
with the consent of the Local Government Board,
such land adjacent to an 'Asylum' as may be required for the
purposes of the hospital; and (d) to be the ambulance authority
in respect of the removal of all classes of infectious sick
persons in the Metropolis." The Chairman remarks that the
Managers are thus, for the first time, "virtually recognised as
the Metropolitan authority for the provision of accommodation
for the isolation and treatment of infectious disease, both
pauper and non-pauper," as in 1877 I recommended that they
should be. He further remarks that they are "now empowered
to legally perform duties which the Legislature had imposed