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The following communication was received from the Vestry of
the Parish of St. Mary Abbotts, Kensington :-
Town Hall, Kensington High Street, W.,
October 20th, 1887.
COMPULSORY NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
Dear Sir,
The Vestry of Kensington, having recently had experience of the ill
results arising from the want of early information of illness from Scarlet Fever,
decided at their meeting, held on the 5th inst., to make a renewed effort to
induce the Government to bring in a Bill, to provide for the Compulsory
Notification of Infectious Diseases generally.
The Resolutions unanimously adopted by the Vestry are as follows:-
"That Compulsory Notification of Infectious Disease, enforced by
legislative enactment, would be conducive to the interests of the public
health, tending, as it would, to check and prevent the spread of infectious
disease, by promoting isolation in the homes of the sick, and removal of
the sick to hospital, when necessary, and also by securing the opportunity
for speedy disinfection of infected houses, clothing, bedding, etc.
"That the President of the Local Government Board be asked to bring
in a Bill, General or Local (Metropolitan), to provide for Compulsory
Notification of Infectious Disease.
"That the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and the several Vestries, and
District Boards, be invited to co-operate with the Vestry by endorsing its
application to the Local Government Board."
It will doubtless be in the recollection of your Board, that in March, 1881, a
Conference of the several Vestries and District Boards of the Metropolis,
convened by this Vestry, was held at the Town Hall, for the purpose of
considering the question of Notification.
The Vestry have requested their Medical Officer of Health to prepare, for the
information of the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and the
members of the several Vestries and District Boards, a Memorandum on the
subject, setting out the proceedings, and the result of the Conference, at which
a Resolution, affirming the desirability of Compulsory Notification, was
unanimously adopted, as follows:-
"That, in the interests of Public Health, and to enable Nuisance
Authorities to discharge the duty of checking and preventing the spread
of Infectious Diseases, such as Small-pox, Fever, &c., provision should
be made, by legislative enactment, to secure the Compulsory disclosure, to
the said Authorities, of all cases of such Diseases, immediately upon their
occurrence."
The Vestry have not thought it necessary, at present, to propose a further
Conference on the subject, the expression of the views of the Sanitary
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