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7
Notifica- Diseases of the variety termed zymotic, infectious or
tion of
Infectious epidemic, that is, diseases which are readily
Diseases
communicated from one individual to another through
the medium of the air, water, food, or by contact with articles
of clothing, &c., or the surface of the persons affected; after a
contest for existence, which has always gone on between the
defensive forces of the human body and the specific elements
constituting these diseases, are now being brought under control,
owing to the improved knowledge of the method of their
propagation, distinguishing the science of medicine of the
present day from the crude speculations of former eras, when
they were considered as necessary scourges inflicted by
providence for some purpose not defined.
It is now known that they all depend upon the development
and multiplication of certain specific germs of very low
organization and of a type akin to the lowest forms of cell
growth. Their origin is absolutely unknown, but the fact of
their transferance from the body of a sick person to that of a
healthy one, unprotected by a previous attack, is well
recognised. It is found that they all have but a limited radius
of infectivity, and that absolute separation of the sick from the
healthy, with proper disinfection of their apartments, clothing,
and other immediate surroundings, will absolutely arrest any
extension of these diseases.
In order to secure such isolation, it is necessary that those
in charge of the sanitation of any given district should have
accurate knowledge of every case of infectious disease, and this
is provided for by the Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act,
which came into operation on October 30th, 1889.
Up to the 28th day of December last, the following cases
were notified under the provisions of that Act in the Parish of
Battersea