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89
THE METROPOLITAN ASYLUMS BOARD.
The work of the Asylums Board has of late years
assumed increased importance to Sanitary Authorities, by
reason of the legislation which has conferred power on the
Managers to fulfil, for the entire Metropolis, the functions
which under the provisions of the Sanitary Act, 1866 (now
incorporated in the Public Health Act, 1891) devolved upon the
forty-three Vestries and District Boards. The Board are nowthe
Central Authority for providing hospital accommodation and
an Ambulance Service, by land and water, for the infectious
sick; by warrant of law, as they previously had been in fact,
for it is well-known that legislation has, during many years,
followed in the steps of the Managers' practice in regard to
all that concerns the removal of the sick and their admission
to hospital. As will be shown later on, the Ambulance
arrangements leave nothing to desire; the accommodation,
for the sick moreover, was always sufficient until within a
comparatively recent date, but the increased and increasing
disposition of the public to make use of the hospitals, which
dates from the scarlet fever epidemic of 1887, together with
the enlarged demands on the resources of the Managers
consequent on compulsory notification, have given rise to
difficulties to which reference has frequently been made in
my reports.
The work of the Board is summarised in three reports,
issued annually, by the Chairman (Sir E. H. Galsworthy), by
the Statistical Committee, and by the Ambulance Committee.
As usual, I submit the substance of these interesting and
important documents, which, dealing essentially with the
same subjects, necessarily overlap more or less. In the subjoined
abstract of their contents, I have endeavoured as far
as practicable to avoid repetition.