§ COLONEL EYRE (Lincolnshire, Gainsborough)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board what is the number of sanitary districts, urban and rural, in which the Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act, 1889, or similar Private Act, has been adopted; whether he has any Reports to show; what is the effect so far, whether beneficial or not, to the public health; and whether it works without friction to the parties interested?
§ *MR. RITCHIEThe Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act, 1889, has been adopted in 481 urban sanitary districts, 337 rural sanitary districts, and 18 port sanitary districts. The Act is in force throughout London, without adoption. Compulsory notification is also in force under local Acts in 56 other districts. The population, according to the Census of 1881, of the districts where there is a system of compulsory notification in force is 19,316,000, the total population of England and Wales being 25,974,000. I have no special Reports on the subject, but I have no doubt whatever that the notification of infectious diseases will have results beneficial to the public health, and I am 1594 glad to say that the arrangements have worked to a remarkable degree without friction.