Dr. R. Bruce Low's report to the Local Government Board on the arrangements made in Germany for the isolation of small-pox cases.

  • Low, Robert Bruce, 1846-1922.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. R. Bruce Low's report to the Local Government Board on the arrangements made in Germany for the isolation of small-pox cases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Dr. R. Bruce Low's Report to the Local Government Board on the arrangements made in Germany for the isolation of Small-pox cases. W. H. Power, Medical Officer, 10th March, 1904. Conflicting statements having been made from time to time in the public press as to the methods employed in Germany in dealing with small-pox patients, the President of the Local Government Board determined to obtain through his medical staff information, collected personally in Germany, of a sort to enable him to contrast the actual methods employed there with those existing in England and Wales. The mission was entrusted to me, and I visited a number of the principal towns in Germany during the autumn of 1903. As a preliminary to my inquiry I proceeded to Berlin to confer with the officials of the Central Imperial Health Office,* and to ascertain from them if it were possible to see current small-pox cases undergoing isolation. But as no cases of the disease existed in Germany, so far as the Central Health Office were aware at the time of my visit, it was arranged that I should visit representative towns in the four chief States of the German Empire, viz., Berlin, Cologne, Frankfort-on-Main, Wiesbaden, and Mainz, in the kingdom of Prussia ; Munich and Nuremberg, in the kingdom of Bavaria ; Dresden and Leipzig, in the kingdom of Saxony ; and Stuttgart, in the kingdom of Wiirttemberg. I accord- ingly visited these ten towns, conferred—except at Mainz where circumstances compelled me to be content with the evidence of lay officials—with the physicians of the hospitals at each place, inspected the accommodation provided for small- pox cases, and obtained also information on the subject of my inquiry from local medical men, municipal officials, and others. While in Berlin I had the advantage of conferring with Dr. Pistor (Geheimer Ober-Medicinalrat und vortragender Rat im Ministerium der Geistlichen Unterrichts und Medicinal Angelegenheiten), from whom I received valuable documentary evidence. At the Central Imperial Health Office at Berlin I obtained the following general information on the subject of my inquiry :— The regulations as to notification and isolation of small-pox cases in the German Empire are drawn up in compliance with the Law concerning the combating of diseases which constitute a common danger. This law is dated June 30th, 1900.f The regulations in force prior to the law of 1900 did not differ in any essential features. * Kaiserliches Gesundheitsamt. t Gesetz betreffend die Bekampfung eremeingefahrlicher Krankheiten, vom 30 Juni, 1900. LONDON: PRINTED FOE HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, By DARLING & SON, Ltd., 34-40, Bacon Street, E. And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C., or OLIVER & BOYD, Edinburgh ; or E. PONSONBY, 116, Grafton Street, Dublin. No. 192. 250 Wt 13723 9/04 D & S 19 1924lr 1904. Price One Shilling.