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persons suffering from Small-Pox, attention was called to the fact
that the number of cases of the disease in the neighbourhood of
the hospitals was apparently in excess of the number found in
streets further removed from them, and a suspicion was aroused
that the hospitals were themselves causing a spread of the
disease. There had appeared, according to Dr. Thorne, to be
ground for believing that in the case of two provincial hospitals,
one at Maidstone and the other at Stockton, the inhabitants of
dwelling-houses in their neighbourhood had suffered owing to
proximity to these institutions. In consequence of the suspicion
which existed as to the influence of London hospitals in spreading
the disease, a careful investigation was made for the Local
Government Board by Mr. Power of the circumstances relating
to the Fulham Small-Pox Hospital. In the result, he came to the
conclusion that the Fulham Hospital, with all its advantages of
site and construction, and with the many excellences of its
administration, had, by dissemination of Small-Pox material
through the atmosphere, given rise to an exceptional prevalence
of Small-Pox in its neighbourhood.
The matter was felt to be of so much importance that a
Royal Commission was appointed to consider the prevention and
control of epidemic infectious diseases in London and its
neighbourhood.
The Commission arrived at the conclusion that it "appeared
clearly established," by the experience of the five hospitals
maintained by the Asylums Board for small-pox patients, that
"by some means or other the asylum hospitals in their present
shape, cause an increase of Small-Pox in their neighbourhoods."
They accordingly recommended that these hospitals, which, in
their judgement, should be no longer used to anything like the
extent they then were for cases of Small-Pox, should become, in
the main, Fever Hospitals, and that mild and convalescent cases of
Small-Pox should be provided for in two or three more country
hospitals, it being apparently thought impracticable to remove
acute cases to such hospitals.