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extend itself indefinitely in the presence of dirt and carelessness, could
not he managed with advantage to the patient, or with safety to his
neighbours, in the close and crowded houses of the poor of Saint Giles.
The Committee succeeded in substituting a well arranged Hospital for
1 lie crowded room, and the best of medical care and nursing for the
chance attendance of ignorant friends. (0. of C. II. 10.)
The Rector of Saint Giles kindly put at the disposal of the
Committee the Shelton School rooms by St Giles's Church. The
Clewer Sisters undertook the entire management, under the Medical
Officers, of the Hospital thus obtained. The building having been
adapted to its purpose by some few alterations, the first Cholera
patient was admitted into it on August 14th. (0. of C. II. 9-10.)
The steps taken by the Committee to keep the District in the most
wholesome practicable condition were in some sense a continuation of
those which had been taken by the Board sincft the very beginning of
the year. In anticipation of cpming Cholera, the Board had made
provision for maintaining the sewers in a state of special efficiency, and
for flushing them with disinfectants throughout the summer; they had
arranged for more frequent street cleaning and removal of manure, had
shut up the dangerous surface wells, had sought to obtain from the
New hiver Company a better supply of water, and had engaged the
services of a second Sanitary Inspector. The Committee carried out
and extended this course of action, and with the extra light that was
thrown on unwholesome conditions about the district by daily reports
from the Medical Visitors, they were able promptly to apply sanitary
remedies to those streets and houses that stood in most need of
improvement. The Inspectors, acting on the reports of the visitors,
called on the owners of 375 houses to make improvements; and where
delay or neglect was allowing a slate of things to exist grossly prejudicial
to health, the officers of the Commntee were instructed to
employ workmen to carry out needful means of demising. Moreover,
a quite unparalleled amount of personal and domestic cleanliness was
obtained, for a time, through the exhortations and influence of the
Medical Visitors. (0 of C. II. 5.)
The New Hiver Company furnished a gratuitous supply of water
to eighteen stand-pipes, which were erected by the Committee in the
poorer streets and courts. From these, good water could be drawn by
any person on Sundays as well as week days, and over a thousand
persons have been frequently supplied from them in the course of a
couple of hours. (0. of C. Hi Ik)
The Committee endeavoured to convey to every one information as
to the way of avoiding Cholera, and of preventing tae disease from
extending. They issued handbills to owners and occupiers of houses
inhabited by the poor, urging on all the duty of seeing that .drains and
other necessaries were acting efficiently, and that water supply was pure,
insisting on the importance of attending early to all Diarrhoea; and giving
information about the medical and sanilnvy arrangements. Between
twenty and thirty thousand handbills and placards were distributed.
(O. of C. II. 20.)