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due to the several medical men, and forward to each the
amount of his claim, 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 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 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
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 the 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
twelve years ago. I am glad to observe, therefore, that in
a Bill to amend the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
introduced by Sir Henry Roscoe and other members, the
subject is proposed to be dealt with in this direction, section
3 providing for the following sub-section to be added, and
numbered to section sixty-six of the principal Act, viz.:—