Public Authorities Protection Act

The statutory authority for this work is furnished by various Acts of Parliament. The charter of public health administration is the Public Health Act of 1875 which has been amended by the Acts of 189o, 1904, 1907 and 1925. Other important health enact ments are the Public Health (Water) Act, 1878, the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act, 1889, the Infectious Disease (Pre vention) Act, 189o, the Open Spaces Act, 1906, the Milk and Dairies (Consolidation) Act, 1915, the Public Health (Smoke Abatement) Act, 1926, and various provisions in the Housing Acts.

The later developments of public health have their basis among other enactments, in the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, the Education Act 1921, the National Insurance Act 1911, the Venereal Disease Act, 1917, the Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918, the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Act, 1921, and in various regulations framed by the Ministry of Health.

The foregoing refers to legislation for England and Wales. The Scottish and Irish Acts, though similar in objects and results are usually different in form and adjusted to the national conditions of those countries.

Central Authorities.

The authorities concerned in the ad ministration of public health are central and local. In England and Wales the chief central authority is the Ministry of Health. This department had its origin in certain movements which can be traced back to the beginning of the 19th century. Interest of the State in the physical health of its citizens is a comparatively modern development, and may be traced broadly to four chief causes; first, to reaction against the anarchy of the Industrial Revolution ; secondly, to the gradual development in the latter part of the 18th century of a humanitarian spirit, as evidenced by the work of John Howard in the reform of prison life, the movement for the abolition of the slave trade, and the efforts of Sir Samuel Romilly and others to infuse a spirit of humanity and common-sense into our penal laws ; thirdly, and probably the most important, to the appearance for the first time of Asiatic cholera in Europe and the threat of its invasion of England ; and fourthly, to the establishment of the central Poor Law Commission in The first Secretary of this Commission was Mr. Edwin Chad wick, one of the great public health pioneers of the 19th century.

He forced upon public notice the importance of sickness and ill health in the production of poverty, and insisted that the pre vention of disease was one of the first duties of the State. Largely as a result of his efforts the first Central Health Department, the General Board of Health, was established, prematurely as it after wards proved, in 1848. Ten years later this board was dissolved

and its duties distributed amongst other offices, but in 1871 they were gathered together again and, with those of the Poor Law Commission, transferred by Act of Parliament to a newly-created department, the Local Government Board. This board remained for nearly 5o years the principal central authority for public health, until in 1919 its functions, together with other health functions, such as health insurance and the medical inspection of school children, which had come to be entrusted to separate central authorities, were transferred to the Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Health Act, 1919, by which the Ministry of Health was established, had as its purpose the prevention of overlapping and competition between certain of the central de partments by bringing the health services which they administered into a single department under a Minister of Health.

Among other central authorities concerned with questions of public health are the Medical Research Council, a Committee of the Privy Council, which co-ordinates research on medical sub jects, the Board of Trade, which is responsible for the health services of the mercantile marine under the Merchant Shipping Acts, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries which has certain powers and duties relating to the production of food and milk, the Ministry of Pensions which has the care of disabled officers and men after they have left the naval, military and air services, and the Home Office, in respect of industrial hygiene control under the Dangerous Drugs Acts, etc.

Local Authorities.—The local authorities charged with the administration of public health services are the Rural and Urban District Councils, the latter including the Metropolitan, Munici pal and County Borough Councils. These bodies are assisted in the discharge of their duties by a technical staff consisting of the Medical Officer of Health and the chief Sanitary Inspector, whom they are required by law to appoint, together with what additional assistance may be necessary. In the smaller districts the duties are sometimes performed by a part-time Medical Officer of Health who is also engaged in general practice, and by a whole-time Sanitary Inspector. In the larger cities the staff of the Public Health Department may number several hundred persons. The Poor Law Guardians have important health functions in relation to the medical care of the poor, and are also responsible for the administration of the Vaccination Acts.