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43
VISITORS TO THE PORT SANITARY DISTRICT.
During the year the following Medical Officers and others visited the Port of
London to study the Sanitary Administration either in general or in some particular
respect:—
Dr. Samarasinghe, of Ceylon.
Dr. J. Pietrani, of Cyprus.
Dr. J. Galea, of Malta.
Dr. L. E. Poulier, of Ceylon.
Dr. C. L. Williams, of United States of America.
Dr. W. S. Berry, of Ireland.
Dr. C. E. Lysaght, of Ireland.
Dr. H. N. C. Kelaart, of Ceylon.
Dr. Hailer, of Germany.
Dr. L. C. Hirst, of Colombo.
The Right Hon. Sir Edward Hilton Young, Minister of Health, the Medical
Director-General and Officers of the Naval Medical Service and the Delegates to the
Annual Meeting of the Association of Port Sanitary Authorities of the British Isles
O V
visited the Port during the year.
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION OF PORT SANITARY
AUTHORITIES.
Mr. Cyril Gamon, C.C., being President of the above Association, the Annual
Meeting was held in London on the 9th and 10th June, 1932. The Programme was
as follows:—
On 9th June, at 2.30 p.m., your Medical Officer delivered a Lantern Lecture to
the Association on " The Port of London and the Work of the Port of London Sanitary
Authority"; subsequently the Delegates were shown over the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and were entertained to tea by the Board of
Management. In the evening the Court of Common Council entertained the
Association at a Banquet in the Art Gallery, the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor
presiding.
The following morning, at 10 a.m., the Lord Mayor opened the Annual Meeting,
which was held in the Public Health Committee Room of Guildhall. At this Meeting
your Medical Officer read a Paper on " The Routine Medical Inspection of Ships from
Infected Ports," which appears in full below. At 1.45 p.m. the Delegates proceeded
to Tower Pier, where they inspected your boarding launch "Howard Deighton,"
and then, at the invitation of the Port of London Authority, proceeded on board the
ss. "St. Katharine" down river to the King George V., Royal Albert, and Victoria
Docks. The facilities for the handling of chilled beef, for the thawing and examination
of ox tongues and for the storage of frozen meat were shown. In No. 6 Cold Store
a demonstration was given of the methods of examining foreign meat. The party
returned to Tower Pier at 6 p.m., and all expressed their appreciation of the generous
hospitality which had been extended to the Association by the Corporation of the
City of London, the Port of London Authority and the London School of Hygiene,
and of the arrangements which had been made to show them as much as possible,
in the short time available, of the work of the Port of London Sanitary Authority.
The Routine Boarding of Ships from Infected Ports.
In 1926, after some six years' experience of boarding ships in the port of Liverpool, I came to the
conclusion that the routine boarding of ships from infected ports involved a great deal of work for which
there was practically nothing to show in the way of discovery of unreported cases of infectious disease,
and I presented to the medical officer of health, Dr. Mussen, and through him to the Ministry of Health, a
scheme for discontinuing this practice and substituting a system whereby the master of an incoming ship
would fill up a short form of " Declaration of Health." The medical inspection of the ship would then
depend on the answers to the questions in this declaration and not on the health conditions existing in the
ports of departure or call of the ship. The Ministry of Health at that time looked with favour on the idea
of a declaration of health but foresaw administrative difficulties in the scheme I proposed. Since then
I have given the matter careful consideration and in the light of further experience feel convinced that the