§ SIR C. W. DILKE (Gloucester, Forest of Dean)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his scientific advisers are of opinion that the system of quarantine is under any circumstances desirable?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. H. H. FOWLER,) Wolverhampton, E.It has only been necessary for the Local Government Board to determine the question as to the adoption of a system of quarantine in connection with cholera, and the scientific advisers of the Department are strongly of opinion that quarantine in connection with that disease is very undesirable. The administration of the Quarantine Acts now devolves on the Privy Council, and not on the Local Government Board, and quarantine would be enforced only in cases of yellow fever or plague. I am informed that it has been considered desirable to have the power to put in force quarantine in these cases in order to prevent the hindrance to navigation which might arise when yellow fever is prevalent in South America if, in consequence of quarantine not being declared in England, ships coming from England were treated by other countries as liable to quarantine.