"We cannot," reported the Sanitary Committee of the Council, "too strongly emphasise our opinion that the London County Council should be empowered to frame bye-laws for the proper sanitary government of London, that the new or existing local bodies should put them in force, and that the County Council should be the supervising body to see that they are properly carried out." A somewhat similar report was made by the Housing of the Working Classes Committee. "The Committee," they said, "feels that until the law is strengthened, and fuller powers to enforce the law are placed in the hands of the Council, its action in dealing with insanitary areas will be of an imperfect character." The question of the housing of the poor in London was at once energetically taken up by the new body. Representations were made to the Government as to the necessity of the Acts relating to the housing of the working classes being consolidated and amended. Consequent upon this, the Government introduced a Bill which was passed--"The Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890,"[170] which repealed and codified fourteen enactments, all having for their object the improvement of the dwellings of the artizan and labouring classes, and the clearing away of unhealthy areas. Very large powers were placed in the hands of the Council and of the district authorities to secure the better housing of the working classes. And the Act may be said to mark a new era in the history of reform in the matter of insanitary areas, giving full power to the Council as a central authority to enforce its provisions. Before the end of this decade Parliament passed two other Acts of great advantage to the health of London. One was, "The Infectious Diseases Notification Act, 1889," making the notification of certain specified diseases compulsory in London--smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, membraneous croup, erysipelas, scarlet fever, typhus, and other fevers. In accordance with well-worn usage London had been left behind in this matter. Other cities and even towns had, by means of local Acts, secured the advantages of such legislation long before. So far back as 1874, indeed, machinery had been in existence in London for the notification of infectious disease in houses let in lodgings. But owing to the neglect of the majority of the Vestries and District Boards to make or enforce regulations under the Sanitary Act of 1866, that machinery was left unused to the great detriment of the people of London. Thousands of lives must have been sacrificed by this neglect, and innumerable cases of preventable disease not prevented. It was not until a general Act was passed that London became possessed of the advantages resulting from such notification. In London, indeed, the health of cattle was better looked after in this respect than that of the people, for cases of infectious disease in cattle had to be notified to the Sanitary Authorities.