The health administration of London

We feel strongly that all central metropolitan powers in regard to public health should be in the hands of one body composed of elected representatives of the ratepayers. The central health authority for London must be one, and undivided. The London County Council is nominally the health authority for the whole of London; it makes bylaws for the whole county, appoints the medical officer and assistant medical officers of health for the whole county, and pays half the salaries of the local medical officers of health and sanitary inspectors in the county. It can act in default of any sanitary authority in the county. It licenses, registers, and inspects cowhouses, offensive businesses, dairies, and milkshops. It receives notification of infectious diseases, and can enlarge the definition of infectious disease, and its health department is in constant communication with the local sanitary authorities. (BMJ 1899;i:680)