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68
six months of the present year a terrible proof of the necessity
of further legislative enactment. The disease has been very
prevalent in London, and has caused a great sacrifice of human
life. Our Government seems to recognise that improvement in
the law on the subject is necessary, but the time of Parliament
has been so taken up with other matters of State, that there has
been no leisure to attend to the subject. It seems a very great
pity that thousands of human lives should be sacrificed in this
the greatest City of the World, that mankind should be afflicted
with a terrible pest, that millions should have been spent in merely
trifling with the disease, and that owing to the present state cf
business in the House of Commons there should be very little chance
of an improvement in the state of the law. Most sanitarians agree
that isolation in hospitals is necessary, in the majority of cases,
in order to prevent the disease from spreading. As a matter of
fact, a very large proportion of the casv.s that occur annually in
London are not properly isolated, and as a consequence the
disease continues most seriously to infect this great City. Compulsory
registration of all cases, with proper compulsory isolation,
appear to be the remedies that would be effectual to prevent the
prevalence of the disease. There can be little doubt that compulsory
re-vaccination at the public expense would have a most
powerful influence in stamping out the disease. As a matter of
fact, a person is almost absolutely protected from contracting
the complaint if he is thoroughly re-vaccinated. The number of
deaths from smallpox last year in London was 475, as compared
with 459 the previous year. In this district, however, there was
a very considerable decrease in the number of cases as compared
with the previous year. It is satisfactory to be able to record
that the number of cases in this district has decreased in every
consecutive year for the last four years. It can not be doubted
but that the strenuous measures adopted by your Board, and
the large amount of energy that has been expended to get the
cases properly isolated and infected houses immediately and
thoroughly disinfected, have been the means of accomplishing
these fortunate results. At the time of my writing this report
there is a very large amount of the disease in London, but it is
satisfactory to be able to record that this district has been during
the whole course of the epidemic (taking it as a whole) one of the
least affected districts in the Metropolis. Your Board is fully aware
of the course that has been adopted. It is only needful, therefore,
for me to call your attention to the results; as I submit, the
results are only what we might have reasonably expected under the
circumstances. During last year only 51 cases of smallpox
(males 27, females 24) were reported in this district, against
328, 266 and 166 cases reported in the three years 1877, 1878 and