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THE INFECTIOUS DISEASE (NOTIFICATION) ACT, 1889.
618 Messrs. Hubert and Co. exhibit their hunting boots, with indelible coloured tops, which require neither scrubbing nor polishing, and can be cleaned by simply holding under a tap of water. To the lovers of hunting this is a great advantage, and it helps to keep the boot dry. Mr. George Cording, of London, has waterproofs ventilated by placing network under the cape, so that as long as the cape does not adhere too closely to the body there would be no difficulty for the hot air to escape. Messrs. Lee Brothers have a large show of woollen waterproof fabrics, of portable baths, buckets, basins, &c., all objects that would certainly be of interest, alike for medical, hospital, and general sanitary purposes. But their case is always closed ; there is no agent or representative to give any explanation. I am puzzled to say what advantage there can be in exhibiting in such a manner that no one can judge the value of the object exhibited. Still, and in spite of such difficulties, there is something to be learnt by a visit to the textile section and the clothing exhibits of the British section. Paris, Sept. 16th. ____
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THE INFECTIOUS DISEASE
ACT,
(NOTIFICATION)
1889.
THE following is the text of a circular addressed by the Local Government Board to all district boards and vestries in the metropolis. The circular is accompanied by an order prescribing a form of notification for use by medical practitioners and a memorandum for their guidance. Local Government Board, Whitehall, Sept. 13th, 18S9. SIR,—I am directed by the Local Government Board to draw the attention of the district boards to the provisions of the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act, 1889, which received the Royal assent on the 30th ult., and which, it is hoped, may materially assist the local authorities of England and Wales in checking the spread of infectious disease, by enabling them to obtain early and accurate information with respect to the cases of infectious disease occurring within their districts. The Act will, after Oct. 30th, 1889, extend to every London districtthat is to say, to the City of London and the several parishes and districts under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan vestries and district boards and the Local Board of Woolwich. The local authorities for the purposes of the Act will be-in the City of London, the Commissioners of Sewers ; in Woolwich, the Local Board of Woolwich; and in the remainder of the metropolis the vestries and district boards acting under the Metropolis Management Acts. Section 3 of the Act provides that where an inmate of any building used for human habitation within a district to which the Act extends is suffering from an infectious disease to which the Act applies, then, unless such building is a hospital in which persons suffering from an infections 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 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 this section 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 40s. If, however, a person is not required to give notice in the first instance, but only in default of some other person, he will not be liable to any fine if he satisfies the Court that he had reasonable cause to suppose that the notice had been duly given. A notice or certificate to be sent to a medical officer of health in pursuance of the above provisions may be sent by being delivered to him, or by being left at his office or residence, or may be sent by post addressed to him at his office or at his residence. Where, in any district of a local authority, there are two or more medical officers of health of the authority, the certificate must be given to such one of them as has charge of the area, in which the patient referred to in the certificate is, or to such other of them as the local authority may from time to time direct. It will be observed that Section 3 refers only to cases where the patient is an inmate of a building used for human habitation. Section 13 of the Act, however, declares that the provisions of the Act shall apply to every ship, boat, tent, van, shed, or similar structure used for human habitation in like manner, as nearly as may be, as if it were a and that a building, ship, vessel, or boat lying in any river, harbour, or other water not within the district of any local authority within the meaning of the Act, shall be deemed for the purposes of the Act to be within the district of such local authority as may be fixed by the Board, and where no local authority has been fixed, then of the local authority of the district which nearest adjoins the place where such ship, vessel, or boat is lying. This section will not, however, apply to any ship, vessel, or boat belonging to any foreign Government, nor will the Act extend to any building, ship, vessel, boat, tent, van, shed, or similar structure belonging to her Majesty the Queen, or to any inmate thereof.
vessel,
The expression " occupier," which occurs in Section .3, is defined hySection 16 as including a person having the charge, management,, or control of a building, or of the part of a building in which the patient is, and in the case of a house the whole of which is let out in separate tenements, or in the case of a lodging-house, the whole of which is let, to lodgers, the person receiving the rent payable hy the tenants or lodgers, either on his own account or as the agent of another person, and in the case of a ship, vessel, or boat, the master or other person in charge thereof. Section 4 of the Act enables the Board from time to time to prescribe. forms for the purpose of certificates under the Act, and requires any forms so prescribed to be used in all cases to which they apply, The Board, in pursuance of this power, have issued an order, a copy of which is enclosed herewith, prescribing the form of certificate! required by the Act to be sent to the medical officer of health by the medical practitioner. The Board also enclose a memorandum for the information of medicat practitioners, which they suggest might accompany each supply of forms of certificates. The Act requires the local authority to gratuitously supply forms of certificate to any medical practitioner residing or practising in their district who applies for the same, and to pay to every medical practitioner for each certificate duly sent by him in accordance with the Act, a fee of 2.f. C)(1. if the case occurs iu his private practice, and of Is. if the’ case occurs in his practice as medical officer of any public body or
institution. Where a medical practitioner attending on a, patient is himself themedical officer of health of the district he will be entitled to the samefee as if he were not such medical officer. Any expenses incurred by a local authority in the execution of the Act are to be paid as part of the expenses of such authority in the execution: of the Acts relating to public health ; but the greater part of these expenses, so far as they are incurred in respect of place, within the Metropolitan Asylum district, will be recouped to the local authority if the directions of section 10 of the Act are observed, which provides that where a medical officer of health receives, in pursuance of the Act, a, certificate of a medical practitioner relating to a patient within that district, he shall within twelve hours after such receipt forward a copy thereof to the managers, and that the manager.*! shall repay to the local authority the amounts paid by the authority in respect of those certificates of which copies have been sent to the manager:’, as required. by that section. The infectious diseases to which the Act applies will in all cases include the following diseases : Small-pox, cholera, diphtheria, membranous croup, erysipelas, the disease known as scarlatina, or scarlet fever, and the fevers known by any of the following names-Typhus, typhoid, enteric, relapsing, continued, or puerperal. If the loca). authority of any district to which the Act extends desires that the Act shall in their district apply to any infectious disease other than the: above, they may from time to time by resolution order that the Act, shall in their district apply to such disease. In such a case, at least fourteen clear days before the meeting at which the resolution is passed. is held, special notice of the meeting and of the intention to proposesuch resolution must be given to every member of the authority. The order embodied in the resolution may he permanent or temporary, and, if temporary, the period during which it is to continue in force must bespecified the1 ein. and any such order may be revoked or varied by the local authority by which the order is made. But no such order, or any revocation or variation of it, will be of any validity until approved by the l3oard. When it is so approved the local authority must give public notice: thereof by advertisement in a local rewspaper, and by handbills, and in such manner as they think sufficient for giving information) to all persons interested. They must also send a copy thereof to each registered medical practitioner whom, after due inquiry, they ascertain to be residing or practising in their district. The order will come into operation at such date not earlier than one; week after the publication of the first advertisement of the approved order as the local authority may fix. In the case of emergency the resolution may be passed at a meeting of which three clear days’ notice has been given. In any such case the resolution must declare the cause of the emergency and be for a. temporary order, and a copy of the resolution must be forthwith sent to the Board and advertised, after which the order will come into* operation at the expiration of one week from the date of the advertisement. But unless approved by the Board it will cease to be in force at the expiration of one month after the resolution is passed, or such earlier date as may be fixed by the Board. As the Act will take effect in the metropolis on Oct. 30th next, the: local authority should, as early as practicable, furnish every medical practitioner residing or practising in their district with the forms of certificate which have been prescribed, and the Board suggests that they should, without delay, take such steps as may appear to them tobe most convenient for giving notice of the requirements of the Act to the inhabitants of the district. Judging from the experience of a. large number of provincial towns in which provisions similar to those contained in the Act have been put in force by means of local Acts, the: Board do not anticipate that the local authority will have any practical difficulty in securing a due compliance with the provisions of the statute, and the Board feel assured that the authority will take such action in connexion with the notifications which they will receive au will materially assist in checking the spread of infectious disease iii the metropolis. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, HUGH OWEN, Secretary.
otherwise
ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL OLD STUDENTS’ DINNER. The annual dinner will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 1st,. 1889, at 6 for 6.30, in the Governors’ Hall, St. Thomas’s Hospital (entrance from Westminster-bridge), Dr. John Harley in the chair.
LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.—Dr. Sakhnovski, MediInspector of the province of Kieff, is about to bring out a new monthly journal dealing with epidemics, entitled the cal
Epidemicheski Listok.
___
_____
THE INFECTIOUS DISEASE
ACT,
(NOTIFICATION)
1889.
THE following is the text of a circular addressed by the Local Government Board to all district boards and vestries in the metropolis. The circular is accompanied by an order prescribing a form of notification for use by medical practitioners and a memorandum for their guidance. Local Government Board, Whitehall, Sept. 13th, 18S9. SIR,—I am directed by the Local Government Board to draw the attention of the district boards to the provisions of the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act, 1889, which received the Royal assent on the 30th ult., and which, it is hoped, may materially assist the local authorities of England and Wales in checking the spread of infectious disease, by enabling them to obtain early and accurate information with respect to the cases of infectious disease occurring within their districts. The Act will, after Oct. 30th, 1889, extend to every London districtthat is to say, to the City of London and the several parishes and districts under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan vestries and district boards and the Local Board of Woolwich. The local authorities for the purposes of the Act will be-in the City of London, the Commissioners of Sewers ; in Woolwich, the Local Board of Woolwich; and in the remainder of the metropolis the vestries and district boards acting under the Metropolis Management Acts. Section 3 of the Act provides that where an inmate of any building used for human habitation within a district to which the Act extends is suffering from an infectious disease to which the Act applies, then, unless such building is a hospital in which persons suffering from an infections 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 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 this section 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 40s. If, however, a person is not required to give notice in the first instance, but only in default of some other person, he will not be liable to any fine if he satisfies the Court that he had reasonable cause to suppose that the notice had been duly given. A notice or certificate to be sent to a medical officer of health in pursuance of the above provisions may be sent by being delivered to him, or by being left at his office or residence, or may be sent by post addressed to him at his office or at his residence. Where, in any district of a local authority, there are two or more medical officers of health of the authority, the certificate must be given to such one of them as has charge of the area, in which the patient referred to in the certificate is, or to such other of them as the local authority may from time to time direct. It will be observed that Section 3 refers only to cases where the patient is an inmate of a building used for human habitation. Section 13 of the Act, however, declares that the provisions of the Act shall apply to every ship, boat, tent, van, shed, or similar structure used for human habitation in like manner, as nearly as may be, as if it were a and that a building, ship, vessel, or boat lying in any river, harbour, or other water not within the district of any local authority within the meaning of the Act, shall be deemed for the purposes of the Act to be within the district of such local authority as may be fixed by the Board, and where no local authority has been fixed, then of the local authority of the district which nearest adjoins the place where such ship, vessel, or boat is lying. This section will not, however, apply to any ship, vessel, or boat belonging to any foreign Government, nor will the Act extend to any building, ship, vessel, boat, tent, van, shed, or similar structure belonging to her Majesty the Queen, or to any inmate thereof.
vessel,
The expression " occupier," which occurs in Section .3, is defined hySection 16 as including a person having the charge, management,, or control of a building, or of the part of a building in which the patient is, and in the case of a house the whole of which is let out in separate tenements, or in the case of a lodging-house, the whole of which is let, to lodgers, the person receiving the rent payable hy the tenants or lodgers, either on his own account or as the agent of another person, and in the case of a ship, vessel, or boat, the master or other person in charge thereof. Section 4 of the Act enables the Board from time to time to prescribe. forms for the purpose of certificates under the Act, and requires any forms so prescribed to be used in all cases to which they apply, The Board, in pursuance of this power, have issued an order, a copy of which is enclosed herewith, prescribing the form of certificate! required by the Act to be sent to the medical officer of health by the medical practitioner. The Board also enclose a memorandum for the information of medicat practitioners, which they suggest might accompany each supply of forms of certificates. The Act requires the local authority to gratuitously supply forms of certificate to any medical practitioner residing or practising in their district who applies for the same, and to pay to every medical practitioner for each certificate duly sent by him in accordance with the Act, a fee of 2.f. C)(1. if the case occurs iu his private practice, and of Is. if the’ case occurs in his practice as medical officer of any public body or
institution. Where a medical practitioner attending on a, patient is himself themedical officer of health of the district he will be entitled to the samefee as if he were not such medical officer. Any expenses incurred by a local authority in the execution of the Act are to be paid as part of the expenses of such authority in the execution: of the Acts relating to public health ; but the greater part of these expenses, so far as they are incurred in respect of place, within the Metropolitan Asylum district, will be recouped to the local authority if the directions of section 10 of the Act are observed, which provides that where a medical officer of health receives, in pursuance of the Act, a, certificate of a medical practitioner relating to a patient within that district, he shall within twelve hours after such receipt forward a copy thereof to the managers, and that the manager.*! shall repay to the local authority the amounts paid by the authority in respect of those certificates of which copies have been sent to the manager:’, as required. by that section. The infectious diseases to which the Act applies will in all cases include the following diseases : Small-pox, cholera, diphtheria, membranous croup, erysipelas, the disease known as scarlatina, or scarlet fever, and the fevers known by any of the following names-Typhus, typhoid, enteric, relapsing, continued, or puerperal. If the loca). authority of any district to which the Act extends desires that the Act shall in their district apply to any infectious disease other than the: above, they may from time to time by resolution order that the Act, shall in their district apply to such disease. In such a case, at least fourteen clear days before the meeting at which the resolution is passed. is held, special notice of the meeting and of the intention to proposesuch resolution must be given to every member of the authority. The order embodied in the resolution may he permanent or temporary, and, if temporary, the period during which it is to continue in force must bespecified the1 ein. and any such order may be revoked or varied by the local authority by which the order is made. But no such order, or any revocation or variation of it, will be of any validity until approved by the l3oard. When it is so approved the local authority must give public notice: thereof by advertisement in a local rewspaper, and by handbills, and in such manner as they think sufficient for giving information) to all persons interested. They must also send a copy thereof to each registered medical practitioner whom, after due inquiry, they ascertain to be residing or practising in their district. The order will come into operation at such date not earlier than one; week after the publication of the first advertisement of the approved order as the local authority may fix. In the case of emergency the resolution may be passed at a meeting of which three clear days’ notice has been given. In any such case the resolution must declare the cause of the emergency and be for a. temporary order, and a copy of the resolution must be forthwith sent to the Board and advertised, after which the order will come into* operation at the expiration of one week from the date of the advertisement. But unless approved by the Board it will cease to be in force at the expiration of one month after the resolution is passed, or such earlier date as may be fixed by the Board. As the Act will take effect in the metropolis on Oct. 30th next, the: local authority should, as early as practicable, furnish every medical practitioner residing or practising in their district with the forms of certificate which have been prescribed, and the Board suggests that they should, without delay, take such steps as may appear to them tobe most convenient for giving notice of the requirements of the Act to the inhabitants of the district. Judging from the experience of a. large number of provincial towns in which provisions similar to those contained in the Act have been put in force by means of local Acts, the: Board do not anticipate that the local authority will have any practical difficulty in securing a due compliance with the provisions of the statute, and the Board feel assured that the authority will take such action in connexion with the notifications which they will receive au will materially assist in checking the spread of infectious disease iii the metropolis. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, HUGH OWEN, Secretary.
otherwise
ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL OLD STUDENTS’ DINNER. The annual dinner will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 1st,. 1889, at 6 for 6.30, in the Governors’ Hall, St. Thomas’s Hospital (entrance from Westminster-bridge), Dr. John Harley in the chair.
LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.—Dr. Sakhnovski, MediInspector of the province of Kieff, is about to bring out a new monthly journal dealing with epidemics, entitled the cal
Epidemicheski Listok.