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latter 543, although in this District not a single death from small-pox has
been recorded; neither has a death occurred in the Small Pox Hospital of
any patient belonging to this District; and out of 543 deaths from scarletfever
in the Metropolis only 3 occurred in this District.
In a Report to your Board dated October 16th, 1876, I stated that,
"although the 110 deaths from small-pox in London during the last Quarter
gave an average of only about 8 per week, yet the number of deaths from
this disease during the last five weeks has been respectively 11, 16, 22, 15,
21, 48, and 52, which shows that this disease is on the increase, and may soon
assume the appearance of a great epidemic."
It is therefore of the utmost importance that every means likely to bo
useful in checking its progress should be adopted.
For this purpose I would respectfully suggest that your Board should
communicate with the Board of Guardians on the subject, and urge upon
them the importance of adopting similar means to those which were carried
out in 1871-2, when small-pox was so fatal in the Metropolis, and which
means were attended with, great success. It would also be most desirable
to draw the attention of the Managers of Schools in the District to the prevalence
of small-pox, and suggest that a medical officer should be requested to
inspect all the children attending the several schools with a view of ascertaining
whether or not, in his opinion, each child has been satisfactorily
vaccinated; and if not, then, by consent of the parents, to re-vaccinate such
child which, in his opinion, is not sufficiently protected from an attack."
An anonymous communication complaining of the overcrowding of seven
schools in this District having been sent to the School Board of London, the
same was forwarded to me. Upon the receipt of which I directed
Mr. Battram:, one of your Sanitary Inspectors, to ascertain the dimensions
of each school, and the number of children in daily attendance. Every one of
these schools was, without any unnecessary delay, carefully measured, and the
following is the result of Mr. Battram's visit of each school, viz., that
only two out of the seven were overcrowded. Notices were issued to abate
the overcrowding in these schools. As a preliminary, however, to this
inspection, I applied for information respecting the space which is allowed
for each child in a School Board School, and I obtained the following
memorandum:—
It is provided as a preliminary condition, "before any grant is made to
a school (Article 4) the Education Department must be satisfied that the
school premises are healthy, well lighted, warmed, drained, and ventilated,
properly furnished, supplied with suitable offices, and contain in the principal
school-room at least 80 cubic feet of internal space, and in the school-room
and class-rooms at least 8 square feet of area for each child in average
attendance."