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such entries relate; also the duration of the illness from which death
resulted, and the address where it took place. These particulars having
been duly entered, and the official having signed a formal declaration to
the effect that the same is a correct copy taken from the book, the document
has to be forwarded to the office of the Registrar-General, at
Somerset House, either by the last post on Saturday night, or the first
post on Monday morning. Here they are copied into books kept for the
purpose, and thus is formed the basis of the weekly returns which appear
in the Times and other morning papers every "Wednesday. Until the passing
of the last Act, it has been the practice for the Registrar-General,
after copying the sheets sent by the Sub-District Officers, to enclose them,
together with a copy of the printed return issued weekly by himself, to the
Medical Officer of Health for the Parish or District to which they are
respectively related. Ry this means attention was at once drawn to any
outbreak of Zymotic disease, and we were thus enabled to inspect the
houses and take the necessary measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
I need hardly remark upon the disastrous results that might
possibly follow from the abrupt termination of such an arrangement;
but I think it a matter of congratulation that so far no evil consequences
have been experienced. It is necessary, in order to fully appreciate the
value of the information conveyed in the alluded to returns, to bear in
mind that, although the books of the Medical Officers in the service of
the Guardians are always open to inspection, yet there are a large number
of cases of Zymotic desease that are attended by private practitioners,
and that these are not brought under the notice of the Sanitary Authority
until the death of the patient take place and is registered.
I am quite at a loss to conceive why an Act of Parliament was passed
to discontinue the supply of these returns, which, after they are copied,
can be of no value to the Registrar-General, and considering that the plan
of distributing them to the persons whom they concerned in the manner
herein described had been in operation for eighteen years, it is difficult to
understand why such an alteration in the law should have been made.
I consider that the method of disseminating the returns was all that
could be desired in regard to regularity, whilst at the same time it
entailed not the slightest additional trouble or expense on anyone. The
law provides that the Vestries should pay the Local Registrars for what