Disinfection by steam was considered practically the only efficient system. By 1895 twenty-four sanitary authorities had provided themselves with this apparatus, six with an apparatus whereby disinfection was effected by dry heat, and eight had arranged with a contractor.
When it is a fact that a few infected rags could let loose disease of the worst type upon a community, the advantages to the public of the general practice of disinfection were incalculable. And in London the advantages were specially great.
In almost every district hundreds of houses were disinfected every year, and thousands—even tens of thousands—of articles.
The system of the compulsory notification of infectious diseases facilitated greatly the work of disinfection, for by informing the authorities where cases of such disease occurred it enabled them to scotch disease in its breeding-places, and so it was of the greatest benefit to the community. How great may be gathered from the following figures.
The number of cases of Infectious Diseases in London notified under the Act of 1889 were:—
| 29,795 | in | 1890 |
| 46,074 | „ | 1892 |
| 67,485 | „ | 1893 |
| 49,699 | „ | 1896 |
| 42,344 | „ | 1899 |
Of those in 1893:—
| 36,901 | were cases of | Scarlet Fever |
| 3,633 | „„ | Enteric „ |
| 22 | „„ | Typhus |
| 13,026 | „„ | Diphtheria |
| 2,813 | „„ | Smallpox |
Great work was being done in the prevention of the spread of infectious disease in London by the Metropolitan Asylums Board, in whose hospitals thousands of persons suffering from such disease were isolated.
Dr. G. Buchanan, Chief Medical Officer to the Local Government Board, wrote in 1892:—