THE ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS OF TUBERCULOSIS II 



organisations, and are capable of being worked in association with them. 

 Here it is unnecessary to give further detail. 



What, then, can the Local Authorities for Public Health do ? It is 

 on them that the chief burden of the campaign must now fall ; for they 

 have the powers and the duty to deal with the disease. 



VI. Disinfection. 



The Public Health (Scotland) Act contains many clauses that deal 

 with disinfection. These are all available for Pulmonary Phthisis as for 

 any other infective disease. Probably they were drawn up primarily for 

 the suppression and prevention of the common infections like scarlet 

 fever, diphtheria, enteric fever, typhus fever, smallpox, etc. But, when 

 carefully examined, they are found applicable even to a peculiarly long 

 and variable disease like phthisis. The Local Authority can, and, when 

 required by the Local Government Board, must provide disinfecting 

 appliances and the officers necessary to work them (46).* They may 

 disinfect or destroy, as necessity indicates, bedding, clothing and other 

 articles that have been exposed to infection. These they may remove 

 and destroy or disinfect and return free of charge. For all these 

 purposes, they may combine with other Local Authorities. 



The Local Authority may also cleanse and disinfect premises when 

 it is certified by a Medical Officer of Health or a qualified medical 

 practitioner that such cleansing and disinfection would tend to prevent 

 the spread of infectious disease (47). They may require householders or 

 others concerned to carry out the disinfection, or they may through their 

 own officers and at the public expense themselves disinfect the premises, 

 etc. To those familiar with the persistence of the tubercle bacillus, it 

 hardly needs to be said that, to be effective, disinfection must be very 

 thorough-going. Recently the perfunctory methods common in the last 

 generation, such as fumigation with sulphur, have steadily receded 

 before the more effective application of disinfectants by washing, moist 

 brushing, or spraying. For clothing, the methods now employed are 

 steeping in disinfectants of adequate strength, or passing through 

 saturated steam under pressure. In some places, for the disinfection of 



*The numbers refer to the sections of the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897. 



(85) 



