View report page

41
Hospital Accommodation for Small-Pox and other Infectious
Diseases.—Your Board is the nuisance and health authority
of the District, and therefore responsible for the health of the District, I
therefore venture to offer some remarks on the sad condition of this
District in common with the whole of London, when in the midst of
an epidemic, like the one now among us, the authorities are interfered
with in their attempts to isolate the patients. The several parishes of
the metropolis have no means of their own for such isolation, and in
1867 the Metropolitan Poor Act was passed and the Asylum Board
was called into existence for the treatment of poor persons belonging
to the unions or parishes in the metropolitan area, who may be
suffering from infectious diseases. The establishment of this Asylum
Board relieved all the parishes in the metropolitan area of the duty of
treating their paupers when so suffering, by performing that duty for
each and every parish.
The Asylum Board, acting under the authority of the Local
Government Board, has performed this duty, but has lately been
checked by law proceedings which are still pending.
It has been suggested that in the event of the closing of the several
Hospitals of the Asylum Board, the several parishes should establish
Hospitals of their own, for the isolation and treatment of their paupers;
if such a suggestion cannot be carried out by suburban parishes having
an open country at their disposal, it is quite clear that parishes like our
own, without an open country on any side of it, cannot act on such a
suggestion. And, as the nuisance authority, your Board could not
allow the erection of a hospital for an infectious disease in the midst
of its crowded streets, for such a hospital would no doubt be a
nuisance per se, and render you liable to law proceedings.
Measles (Decennial Average, 26.9) was more fatal throughout
the country in the first three months of 1880, than in any corresponding
period since 1874. The District lost 37 children from it, nearly
double of the preceding year, and in excess of the decennial average.
Scarlet Fever (Decennial Average, 327).—This District, in
common with the metropolis, suffered severely from an epidemic of
Scarlet Fever, which continued throughout the year, and reached its
intensity in August during the hot weather, when more that 50
children (chiefly belonging to the poor) were reported to be suffering
from it.
Scarlet Fever is a difficult epidemic to deal with and remains a long
time in a district chiefly on account of the objection of parents to
allow their children to be isolated by removal to a fever hospital.
The children remain with their parents in rooms where isolation is
impossible, where visitors are freely received, who carry away infection,
and where there are no means for disinfection of the clothing and
rooms.
Of the total number of cases reported during the year only 20 were
removed to the hospital.