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include the statistics for the Metropolis, if the Managers would
cause them to be supplied, in the course of Tuesday in each week,
with a numerical summary of the certificates received in the
previous week. The Board would then cause the complete return
to be issued on every Thursday to the Managers, as well as to the
Medical Officers of Health of the provincial towns taking part in
the arrangement. Expressions of willingness had, at that date,
been received from most of the towns invited to join in the
arrangement, which will therefore comprise, with a few
exceptions, all the provincial towns having populations of 50,000
and upwards. The Managers shortly afterwards accepted the
invitation to take part in the arrangement, and it is to be presumed
that, ere long, these weekly summaries will be published
for general information. In any case, however, the action
taken by the Local Government Board marks an important
step in the direction of registration of infectious (and mainly
preventable) disease, as distinguished from mere records of
mortality.
Defects in the Act.—In my last Report I drew attention
to defects in the Act, e.g., in regard to the form of the medical
certificate prescribed by the Local Government Board, and to the
supposed exemption of tbe Medical Officers of General Hospitals
from the necessity of notifying to the Medical Officers of Health
cases of infectious disease admitted to those institutions.* The
attention of the Board having been directed by the Managers to
the defects in the certificate, they stated that certain particulars
which the Managers desired to be added, were not required for the
purpose for which the system of notification was rendered
*Under section 3, sub-section 1, every case of infectious disease occurring
amongst the inmates of any building used for human habitation, must be
notified, "unless such building is a hospital in which persons suffering from an
infectious disease are receivedor, in other words, as a natural interpretation
would seem to imply, "unless such building is an infectious disease hospital
But the Local Government Board expressed an opinion that all general hospitals
and infirmaries are exempted by the sub-section from the necessity to
notify, the effect of such exemption being that many cases are not notified at
all, and the houses wherein such cases occur are not disinfected.