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171
hospital ships, all cases of Small-Pox received by the Board,
unless the condition of the patients made their removal to the
ships dangerous; and the Boards arrangements, well designed
and well carried out, for the conveyance of patients thereto, have
since been found to admit of practically the whole of the cases
being taken to the ships. As a relief to the hospital ships in times
of Small-Pox epidemics, the Board erected in 1888-9, and extended
in 1893-94, at Darenth, on a site near that before used for the
hospital camps, a hospital primarily intended for cases convalescent
after Small-Pox, which was so used during the later part of the
Small-Pox outbreak of 1892-94. The Metropolitan Asylums
Board have also provided, since 1881 a partial, and since 1889 a
complete, ambulance service for London Small-Pox; and so well
has the service, which formerly was an undoubted means of
infection, been carried on by the Board that it may, in this
connexion at least, be taken that no spread of infection has
occurred from the Board's ambulances.
We have already directed attention to the fact that it was,
practically speaking, not until 1871 that hospital accommodation
was provided in London, which rendered possible the removal
from their home of persons suffering from Small-Pox, and we have
detailed the measures adopted from time to time for that
purpose.