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51
power to prevent the wilful or careless spread of
Catching Diseases has really been put in the hands of
the Magistrates. At your request, I have embodied
those clauses of the Sanitary Act of 1866 which
bear on this question.
On Infectious or Catching Diseases, and the Legal Means
of Preventing their Spreading.
1.—Catching or Infectious Diseases are Scarlet Fever, Small
Pox, Typhus, Typhoid, and Relapsing Fevers, and Measles.
2.—By the Sanitary Act of 1866, a Penalty of £5 is inflicted
on any person who wilfully or negligently is the means of
spreading Infeetious and Contagious Diseases among their
friends or neighbours.
3.—It is Illegal to use any public Cab for the conveyance of
a Patient to a Hospital or anywhere else without telling the
driver that it is a case of Infectious Disease.
4.—The driver of a Cab may refuse to take any such Person
unless he is paid a sum of money sufficient to defray the expenses
of disinfecting his Cab.
5.—Any Cabman taking another fare, after conveying an
infected Person, without previously disinfecting his Cab, is
liable to a Penalty of £5.
6.—It is Illegal for an Infected Person to go, or for any
person to take or send any one suffering from an Infectious
Disease, to any public place, such as the Waiting Room of a
Hospital or Dispensary, or to a School, or a Church or a Chapel,
or a Theatre, or Omnibus or other Public Carriage, so as to
endanger any other persons, whether adults or children.