View report page

37
their compulsory registration, isolation, and for cottage
hospitals, with full liberty of attendance upon his
patient by the private practitioner.
The annual cost to the public from the adoption of
these measures would be considerably less than that now
incurred in the painting, white-washing, papering, &c.,
of houses; in the replacing of bedding, furniture, &c.; in
disinfecting, and in the separation and removal of
families,—all of which are necessitated by the outbreak
of these diseases.
As to the hardship, against which some would cry
out, of being compelled to place the patient in a
hospital, it would very soon be found to be practically
nil, as, the more rigorously the measures were worked,
the less frequent would be the necessity for their
adoption. There are details in connexion with these
measures to which I cannot now advert, but I know of
no insuperable objection to them.
The history of medicine forbids us to expect the
discovery of an immediate and effectual antidote to
these disorders, there being few specifics at our command
in the treatment of disease; nor are we able, when
measles or scarlet fever appears, to induce a mild and
harmless malady for an infectious and fatal one, as is
done in the production of cow-pox by vaccination as a
preventive of small-pox.
The compulsory registration of all diseases which are
capable of propagating contagion is thus most desirable.
An exact knowledge of an evil is the first step towards
its remedy. "Let there be light" was the prologue to
Creation Registration does not necessarily involve nor