View report page

iii
the 1st instant, is rapidly filling; so that, if the disease goes on as it has done for the last
few months, there will shortly be no place for the reception of patients from this District;
and as isolation is of the first importance, 1 trust you will take into your serious consideration
the necessity for providing Hospital accommodation.
If you decide upon doing so, the best course to be adopted would be to get premises
easily adaptable for the purpose, and without delay have them fitted up for use.
If such premises cannot be obtained, then a piece of ground should be hired, and a
temporary Hospital erected thereon immediately.
The next in importance is a mortuary; and there is no doubt that such a building for
the Parish is a necessity, for it often happens that a person who has died of contagious
disease is left in a room for two or three days where the family are living.
Then comes a disinfecting apparatus. This also is a necessity, because we require it
at all times. The one I recommend is patented by Fraser & Co., Commercial Road, as I
believe it to be the most perfect yet made. It covers a space of about eight feet square
(this could be placed in any building), and a truck is made just large enough to fit it.
The truck is sent to the people's houses, the bedding, &c., is put into it, it is then wheeled
into the disinfecting room, and is disinfected with the clothing, &c.
The mortuary and disinfecting apparatus should certainly be placed together, so that
the same person should attend to both, and thus save expenses; and if a plot of ground
was bought, you could place hospital, mortuary, and disinfecting apparatus together.
I remain,
Yours obediently,
THOMAS SARVIS,
Mcdical Officer of Rtalih.
February 4, 1871.
No action was taken on this Report, but several meetings were held by
the Committee, with a view of establishing a Hospital under the control
of the Vestry. Various sites were inspected, but as none which were considered
eligible could be obtained, and for the reasons mentioned in my
Report of February 4th, it was deemed advisable—the Small Pox Hospital
at Homerton having in the interim been opened—to leave the matter in
the hands of the Metropolitan Asylum District Board.
The disease continued to prevail, and extended itself in a south-easterly
direction, visiting, in its progress, Sclater Street, Hare Street, St John
Street, Church Row, and the streets adjoining. Cases also occurred in
Winchester Street, Scott Street, and North Street; but it displayed
special virulence among the inhabitants of that poor and densely populated