MR. E. TURNORasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to the case of Mrs. Dexter, who was charged at the Westminster Police Court 306 on 13th June with serving milk in her shop to customers while suffering herself from small-pox, and was acquitted by the police magistrate on the ground that the Act 29 and 30 Vic. c. 90, only applies to streets and public places; and, whether he would consider the expediency of extending the operation of the Act so as to include all cases of exposure of persons suffering from dangerous infectious diseases?
MR. BRUCE, in reply, said, it appeared to be true that a person named Dexter, who kept a milk-shop, was guilty of the imprudence of serving a customer while she herself was suffering from small-pox. The 35th section of the Sanitary Act of 1866 enacted that any person subject to a dangerous infectious disease who exposed himself without proper precaution in any public place, street, or public conveyance should be liable to the penalties imposed by the Act. The magistrate held—and he thought rightly held—that a shop was not a public place within the purview of the Act. But he thought the Act might be very usefully amended and enlarged so as to include shops.