And be it further enacted, That this Act shall be deemed and taken to be a Public Act; and be judicially taken notice of as such, by all Judges, Justices, and other persons whomsoever, without specially pleading the same.
And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That this Act shall continue in force for the term of Five Years, and from thence to the end of the then next Session of Parliament.
The Select Committee appointed to consider the validity of the doctrine of Contagion in the Plague; and to report their observations thereupon, together with the Minutes of the Evidence taken before the House: Have considered the matters to them preferred, and have agreed upon the following Report.
Your Committee being appointed to consider the validity of the received doctrines concerning the nature of contagious and infectious diseases, as distinguished from other epidemics, have proceeded to examine a number of medical gentlemen, whose practical experience or general knowledge of the subject appeared to your Committee most likely to furnish the means of acquiring the most satisfactory information. They have also had the evidence of a number of persons whose residence in infected countries, or whose commercial or official employments enabled them to communicate information as to facts, and on the principle and efficacy of the laws of Quarantine; all the opinions of the medical men whom your Committee have examined, with the exception of two, are in favour of the received doctrine, that the Plague is a disease communicable by contact only, and different in that respect from Epidemic fever; nor do your Committee see any thing in the rest of the evidence they have collected, which would induce them to dissent from that opinion. It appears from some of the evidence, that the extension and virulence of the disorder is considerably modified by atmospheric influence; and a doubt has prevailed whether under any circumstance, the disease could be received and propagated in the climate of Great Britain. No fact whatever has been stated to show, that any instance of the disorder has occurred, or that it has ever been known to have been brought into the Lazarettos for many years: but your Committee do not think themselves warranted to infer from thence, that the disease cannot exist in England; because in the first place, a disease resembling, in most respects, the Plague, is well known to have prevailed here in many periods of our history, particularly in 1665-6: and further, it appears that in many places, and in climates of various nature, the Plague has prevailed after intervals of very considerable duration.