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89
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATISTICAL
COMMITTEE.
For the corrected Table of notifications of infectious
disease on the previous page, I am indebted to the courtesy of
the Clerk to the Metropolitan Asylums Board: it will in due
course appear in the annual report of the Statistical Committee,
which had not been published when the present report
went to press. The Table, comprising 45,905 cases, excludes
all multiple certificates. In some instances two, or even
three, certificates are received with respect to the same case,
it being the duty of " every medical practitioner attending
on, or called in to visit the patient, forthwith, on becoming
aware that the patient is suffering from an infectious disease,"*
to report the case to the medical officer of health of the district.
The Infectious Disease (Notification) Act of 1889, now repealed,
exempted the medical officers of general hospitals,
infirmaries, &c.,from the obligation to notify. This exemption
was found to work injuriously, as the Sanitary Authority,
ignorant of the occurrence of cases admitted to general
hospitals, could not take measures for disinfecting the infected
houses, or otherwise for preventing the spread of disease. This
exemption has been abolished. Complaint has been made
by a Sanitary Authority of having to pay for more than
one certificate for the same case ; but obviously if two medical
men are called in, successively, to treat the patient, each lies
under the statutory obligation to certify, and each is entitled
to the statutory fee, if he performs his duty, and exposes
himself to liability to the statutory penalty if he fails to notify.
The dual notifications, in 1892, were 1554, or 30 weekly, (the
weekly number of notifications averaging 910), being about
three per cent. of the total number. In our parish the dual
notifications were 59.
"Public Health (London) Act, 1891, Sec. 55 (1) (6).