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19
Property versus Health.
We have a striking instance of the great interest that is shown in the
protection of property, and the comparatively little value that is attached to
the health of the people in the recent Act, intituled "The Contagious Diseases
Animals Act, 1878." As regards the laws which are in force for the protection
of the health of cattle, which may be looked upon as property, I
have nothing to complain; but as a health officer, I may express my surprise
that similar laws to those which are now in force respecting disease in
cattle, are not enacted to prevent the spreading of infectious and contagious
diseases among the people. At present there is no general law in force to
compel persons who may become acquainted with the existence of an infectious
disease in a dwelling house to give notice of the same to the Sanitary
authority of the district, so that prompt measures may be adopted, with
the concurrence of the medical attendant of the patient, to prevent the
extension of the disease; nevertheless, as the subject has now been brought
under the notice of Government, it is to be hoped that the question will
be duly considered during the present session of Parliament. Surely it
is more important to protect the lives of the people than to protect from
loss the dealers in cattle; but until the care of public health is considered
to be of more importance than the care of property, little improvement in the
laws relating to health can be expected. Although the advantages of studying
the science of public health have been for upwards of forty-five years
prominently placed before the public by intelligent and experienced men, it
yet appears that preventive medicine is only in its infancy. The State,
however, has not been unmindful of the protection it affords to the preservation
of the public health, as is seen by the numerous statutes in existence
for that purpose, and all that is now needed, with perhaps a few new clauses,
is a consolidation.
In my report for the Quarter ended 30th March last, the danger
resulting from my not being made early acquainted with the first case of
small pox, which occurred in Spring-gardens, is strikingly illustrated. On
the 9th January last, from a private communication received at the office,
a case of fever was discovered at No. 7, Buck's-row. The Inspector, Mr.
Wrack, immediately visited the house, and there learnt that a boy 16
years old was lying in bed suffering from typhoid fever. The mother
informed the Inspector that the whole family, six in number, had very
recently been ill with the same disease, and that their medical attendant
had prescribed at different times during their illness, and yet no information
of the circumstance was forwarded to this office. On the recovery of the
boy, all the bedding, &c., was removed and disinfected, the house was disinfected
with sulphurous acid gas, and the walls and ceilings of the hous