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107
perhaps, they would have been more correctly described as
erythema—but the matter is one which, in the present state
of the law, must be left to the judgement and discretion of
the medical men concerned in the notification.
PAYMENT OF FEES FOR CERTIFICATES.
During the year 1891, 831 certificates were received by
me for which the sum of £87 os. 6d. was paid to medical
practitioners, in amounts varying from one shilling to
£4 13s. fid. These amounts having been paid by your
Vestry, were recouped by the Asylums Board out of the
Metropolitan Common Poor Fund. A question having arisen
how the accounts could be most conveniently arranged, I
proposed that we should prepare a statement of the sums
due to the several medical men, and forward to each the
amount of his clain, by postal order. This plan—simple and
convenient, the amounts due being known, the certificates
forming, as it were, a bill of items—-was adopted, and has
worked satisfactorily.
COMPULSORY REMOVAL TO HOSPITAL OF THE
INFECTIOUS SICK.
This may be effected by a Justice's Order, upon the
certificate of a registered medical practitioner, if the patient
be " without proper lodging on 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 lives. The Conference
of the Sanitary Authorities, convened by your Vestry in 1881,
on the subject of Notification of infectious disease, dealt with
this question of compulsory removal also, having passed a
resolution to the effect that the law, as it stands, is
"insufficient for the protection of the public health," and