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patients were admitted into the Managers' hospitals, in respect of
which no notification had been made to the Medical Officer of
Health, and 41 of these cases were removed from general hospitals
and infirmaries, of which there are some 130 in London. From
the 28th October, 1889 to the 1st March, 1890, 657 cases were
notified by the Medical Officers of these institutions, notwithstanding
that some of them had not notified at all: it would be
a serious thing, therefore, should the hospital authorities generally
avail themselves of the exemption to which the Local Government
Board hold them to be entitled. The point ought to be
made clear, and if necessary the Act should be amended, as the
exemption, if availed of, would have detrimental effect upon the
public health. The expression of the opinion of the Local
Government Board was attended with one good result, inasmuch
as it led the Managers to renew the issue of the daily return of
admissions to their hospitals.
It was anticipated that the Managers would issue, for their
own and the public information, a weekly summary of cases
notified under the Act. They, however, have not thought it
necessary to do so hitherto; in my monthly reports, therefore, I
have summarised the returns, and I append hereto a statement
of all the cases notified in the several sanitary districts, from
October 28th, 1889, to the end of April, 1890, a period of six
months. [While the report was going through the press the
Managers passed a resolution (31st May) to the effect " That the
Clerk be directed to prepare and submit each fortnight a return of
tlie number of notified cases of infectious disease."