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to consider the matter, with the view to a uniform
basis of rating being adopted.
Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act, 1889.—
This measure enacts provisions which many of
the Sanitary Authorities of the Metropolis have
considered necessary for some years past in the
interests of the public health. It provides that
where an inmate of any building used for human
habitation within a district to which the Act
extends, is suffering from Small Pox, Cholera,
Diphtheria, Membranous Croup, Erysipelas,
Scarlatina or Scarlet Fever, Typhus, Typhoid,
Enteric, Relapsing, Continued, or Puerperal Fevers,
then unless such building is a hospital in which
persons suffering from an infectious disease are
received, the following provisions shall have effect,
that is to say—
"(a) The head of the family to which such inmate (in the Act
referred to as the patient) belongs, and in his default the
the nearest relatives of the patient present in the
building, or being in attendance on the patient, and in
default of such relatives every person in charge of or in
attendance on the patient, and in default of any such
person the occupier of the building shall, as soon as he
becomes aware that the patient is suffering from an
infectious disease to which the Act applies, send notice
thereof to the Medical Officer of Health of the district."
"(b) Every medical practitioner attending on or called in to
visit the patient shall forthwith, on becoming aware
that the patient is suffering from an infectious disease to
which the Act applies, send to the Medical Officer of
Health for the district a certificate stating the name of
the patient, the situation of the building, and the
infectious disease from which, in the opinion of such
medical practitioner, the patient is suffering."
Every person required by the Act to give a notice
or certificate who fails to give the same, will be
liable on summary conviction in manner provided
by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, to a fine not
exceeding forty shillings. If, however, a person is