View report page

117
existing Regulations and requiring notification by medical practitioners
generally of all forms of Tuberculosis, but the powers
of the Public Health authorities in preventing infection by
tuberculous persons remain purely persuasive, being circumscribed
by Article XVI of the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations,
1912, which is as follows:—
'Exception and application of Enactments.
Article XVI.—Nothing in these Regulations shall have
effect so as to apply, or so as to authorise or require a
Medical Officer of Health or a Local Authority, or any other
person or authority, directly or indirectly, to put in force
with respect to any person in relation to whom a notification
in pursuance of these Regulations has been transmitted to
a Medical Officer of Health any enactment which renders
the person, or any one in charge of the person, or any
other person, liable to a penalty, or subjects the person
to any restriction, prohibition or disability affecting himself,
or his employment, occupation or means of livelihood, on
the ground of his suffering from Tuberculosis.'
Recent Consideration of this Question.
"This question of tuberculous persons engaged in the milk
trade has recently been the subject of a questionnaire to Medical
Officers of Health in London, and it is evident from the summary
of replies circulated by the Medical Officer of Health of Hampstead,
that 'persuasion' remains the only means of dealing with
these cases.
"The Medical Officer of Health of Greenwich has recently
had difficulties in dealing with a Tuberculous milk-roundsman,
persuasion having proved useless, and the matter was referred to
the Ministry of Health who find themselves unable to suggest
any useful method of dealing with a Tuberculous milk-roundsman
who refuses to be persuaded to change his occupation.