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42
Smallpox Ambulance Service.
The Metropolitan Asylums Board, on the 8th March, 1902,
adopted a proposal of their Ambulance Committee, by which all
necessary preliminary steps were to be taken with the view of
securing sufficient freehold land for the purposes of an, Ambulance
Station and Shelters for patients midway between London and
Dartford. There being considerable doubt as to what
the intention of the Asylums Board really was, the Society
of Metropolitan Medical Officers of Health sent a deputation to
the Board on April 28th, and were then officially informed that
the proposed Smallpox Ambulance Service was intended to supplement,
and in no way to take the place of, the River Ambulance
Service—it being definitely stated to the deputation that, in the
opinion of the Asylums Board, the River Service was satisfactory
except in a few cases where delays occur from frost and fog. To
avoid inconvenience from such delays, and to ensure the patients
suffering from Smallpox being at all times at once removed to the
Smallpox Hospitals at Long Reach, is the object of the Metropolitan
Asylums Board, and, therefore, their new proposal (mentioned
above) was approved by the Lambeth Council as satisfactory
and necessary, more especially as the Local Government
Board naturally and rightly objects to any important extension of
the present temporary observation Shelters, either at Rotherhithe
or elsewhere near London.
3. Disinfection.
As soon as a case of Smallpox had been removed, the next important
preventive measure was to get rid of every trace of infection
by efficiently and at once disinfecting the room or rooms in
which the patient had lived prior to removal, and, indeed, the
rest of the house, together with all clothes, bedding, etc., that
had become directly, or indirectly, infected. Upon the efficiency
of such disinfection depends the success (in part) of the
action taken in dealing with Smallpox outbreaks. To ensure the
disinfection being as efficient as possible, the Medical Officer
of Health arranged for the use of formalin, or perchloride
of mercury, spray, the stripping off of all papers
from infected rooms, washing of ceilings, walls, floors,
etc., in addition to the routine sulphur fumigation, which is found
so useful as a means to ensure the occupiers using plenty of soap
and water, and fresh air (by open windows and doors), to get rid
of the smell of the sulphur fumes which are very penetrating and
lasting. All articles of clothing, carpets, curtains, bedding, etc.,
were disinfected with saturated steam in the Equifex Disinfecting