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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health,—1893. 17

This list emphasises the utterly inadequate space allowance in the shelters,
amounting to less than one-third of the minimum cubic space elsewhere, and little
over one-thirteenth of the amount considered necessary in a good general hospital.
The placing of Salvation Army and other shelters under the protective provisions
of the Common Lodging House Acts has been repeatedly advocated by me in Special
Reports during the past two years. It has also been urged by your Vestry, both
by letter and in the form of resolution addressed to the Local Government Board.
Questions on the same subject have been asked in the House of Commons, to which
unsatisfactory replies have been given. Copies of resolutions—similar to those
previously arrived at by your Vestry—have been forwarded by the Metropolitan
branch of the Society of Medical Officers of Health to the Local Government Board
and to the Home Office. The only result so far has been the official appointment of
Dr. Airey, Medical Inspector to the Local Government Board, to inquire into the
Sanitary condition of the Night Shelters of the Salvation Army in the metropolis.
I have written to the Local Government Board requesting the favour of a copy of
Dr. Airey's Report. The reply received from the Assistant Secretary stated that
"the Report in question was not intended for publication; and that the Board
could not undertake to supply me with a copy."
By the courtesy of Mr. J. Duncombe Mann, the Secretary of the Metropoltan
Asylums Board, and the kind assistance of Dr. Walter F. Frith, the acting Medical
Superintendent of the Hospital Ships at Long Reach, I am able to present a complete
list of small-pox admissions.