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1,498 beds for small-pox patients has been, in round figures,
£184,000.* The total sum expended in carrying on this department
of the Board's work, during the year under review, was £285,653 1s. 1d.,
viz.: Maintenance Account £52,093 11s. 3d., and Common Charges
Account £233,559 9s. 10d. Referring to the excess of expenditure
last year, the Chairman observes that it cannot "be a matter for
surprise if regard be had to the fact that the Board .... now
receives one out of every two cases of fever, and almost every case
of small-pox, which occurs in the metropolis; that year by year the
Managers are admitting into their hospitals a greater percentage of
the total number of infectious cases (notified) .... and that as the
population of the Metropolis is increasing in density, it becomes
more and more necessary, in the interests of the population as a
whole, to make proper and sufficient provision for the prompt isolation
of those of its inhabitants who may be stricken with infectious
disorders." Some consolation is offered in the forecast that it is
"most improbable" that the expenditure of the Board will continue
to increase in anything like the ratio that it has done during the last
few years, "for it is only reasonable to infer that," when sufficient
accommodation shall have been provided " the prompt removal and
isolation of cases (of fever and diphtheria) as they occur, should—
unless the value of isolation be greatly exaggerated,—be followed by
a very appreciable reduction in the number of cases."
I subjoin a summary of Statistics, condensed from Tables
appended to the Chairman's report, which may give some idea of the
magnitude of the work carried on by the Managers under the
provisions of the Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867, the scope of which,
as regards the provision of accommodation for the reception and
treatment of persons suffering from infectious diseases, has been
largely extended by subsequent legislation, and notably by the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891.
* The cost of the three permanent Ambulance Stations which have been
erected on parts of the several hospital sites at Homerton, Fulham, and Deptford,
was close on £40,000. The expenditure in respect of the purchase of the sites, and
the construction thereon of piers and other buildings, of the three wharves at
Blackwall, Rotherhilhe, and Wandsworth, was about ,£42,500.