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64
Compulsory Removal of the Infectious Sick.—No provision
is made in the Notification Act with respect to compulsory
removal to hospital of the infectious sick. This may be effected
by Justice's Order, upon the certificate of a registered medical
practitioner, if the patient be " without proper lodging or accommodation."
But it has been held that the fitness of the lodging
or accommodation is to be considered only as it affects the patient
himself, and without any reference to the welfare of the other
inhabitants of the dwelling-house wherein he lies. The Conference
of the Sanitary Authorities, convened by your Vestry in
1881, on the subject of Notification, dealt also with this question
of compulsory removal, having passed a resolution to tlie effect
that the law, as it stands, is "insufficient for the protection of
the public health," and should be " so amended as to empower
any justice to direct the removal to a hospital ... of any person
suffering from any dangerous infectious disorder, and being without
proper lodging or accommodation which would enable him to be
properly isolated, so as to prevent the spread of disease to other
inmates of tlie same house, or to be properly treated." My own
view that such an alteration of the law is necessary is just as
strong now as when I drafted the above resolution. But I cannot
regret that the subject was left out of the Notification Bill, as its
iutroduction might have imperilled the passing of the measure.
THE POOR LAW ACT, 1889.
A measure with the above title, which passed the legislature
without opposition, and almost without observation by sanitary
authorities, contains sanitary provisions of the highest importance
as affecting the Metropolis. Section 3 enables the Managers of
the Asylums Board, subject to regulations and restrictions to be
made by tlie Local Government Board, to receive into their
hospitals non-paupers suffering from fever, small-pox, or diphtheria.
The Guardians of the Union from which the patient is
received, are to pay to the Managers the expenses incurred by
them for maintenance, &c., but they may recover the amount of