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or a crowded home, with the attention of the
mother divided between the sick and the sound, as
in a well-appointed hospital in which the case is
detained as long; as may be necessary and then
discharged with all due precautions. In view of
the excessive cost per head that hospital isolation
entails upon the general body of ratepayers, it
certainly could be claimed — supposing it were
possible—that a proportion of cases might be
safely treated in their own homes provided that the
necessary precautions could be carried out to the
satisfaction of the medical man in charge and of
the Medical Officer of Health as representing the
Sanitary Authority, and who has also to consider
the public welfare, but this is a point upon which
medical opinion must differ and arguments on both
sides be advanced, so that the time has hardly yet
arrived when it would be either wise or correct to
say that hospital isolation has not proved of such
advantage to the community as to justify or
necessitate any modification of the existing
practice.
Enteric Fever. Six cases were notified, two each from Surbiton,
Tolworth and Hook. Only one case would appear
to have had a local origin and that seemed to be
due to bad and defective drainage and probably
polluted water. An examination showed that the
drains were faulty and that sewage had been and
was escaping into the foundations of the house.
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