View report page

262
the Medical Officer is required to send a copy of the certificate,
not only as hitherto to the Asylum Board, but also
to the Head Teacher of the school attended by the patient
(if a child), or by any child who is an inmate of the same
house as the patient. This latter requirement will, I fear,
prove very difficult to carry out, and may add seriously to
the work of the inspectors.
With respect to prevention, also, a few changes have
been made. Every Sanitary Authority will be required in
future to provide proper premises, with all necessary apparatus
and attendance for the destruction and disinfection,
and for the conveyance of all infected articles. According
to the present Act, when a certificate that disinfection is
needed is given by any qualified practitioner, a notice must
be served on the Master (meaning thereby, except in the
case of unoccupied houses, the occupier), informing him that
disinfection of house and infected articles will be carried
out by the Authority, unless within 24 hours he informs
the Authority that he will himself do what is necessary to
the satisfaction of the Medical Officer of Health or of any
other legally qualified practitioner.
This enactment renders it the duty of the Sanitary
Authority to disinfect not only articles but houses, excepting
under the conditions just mentioned; and will probably
make it necessary either to appoint special additional officers
or to make arrangements with some contractor, in order to
carry out the disinfection of houses properly.
Section 60 re-enacts an important provision, which has
not yet been acted on in Camberwell, but which may soon