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since the tide began to turn, while the number of scarlet fever
cases alone which might be expected to require accommodation
simultaneously in the autumn, ranged, according to the basis
of computation adopted, from 4,800 to 6,300." The Managers
stated that they "set out these facts, though they are already
known to the Local Government Board," to remind the
Board "how urgent is the immediate provision of new hospitals
and they insisted that they were justified in expecting from
the Board "some indication of their views as to the conditions
which should be required in a suitable site" for an infectiousdisease
hospital. The Managers' contention was and is that
the hospitals should be "as near to the homes of the patients
as possible, and therefore as evenly distributed over their
district as circumstances will allow." It was their duty simple
to see that sites were in themselves suitable, and that in
providing for the isolation of the sick the provision they make
is the best that is possible. "Working in this view . . .
much as they regretted the unwelcomeness of their presence
to adjacent owners or occupiers," they contended that "they
are not only under no obligation, but they have no right, to
give such owners or occupiers a veto or voice in restraining
their proceedings, beyond what is afforded by the ordinary
processes of law"; and they pointed to the then recent unanimous
judgment of the Court of Appeal, " that an owner of
land has a right to establish on it a small-pox hospital, and
that provided that hospital be properly conducted it is not, in
the legal sense, a nuisance," The Managers maintained that
"if this be so in the case of small-pox hospitals, d fortiori it
is true of fever hospitals, as to which all subsequent experience
bears out the conclusion of the Royal Commission of 1882,
that 'all evidence goes to show that well-conducted fever
hospitals involve no appreciable risk in the neighbourhood."
The Managers therefore pressed upon the Board that a small
section of the community in a particular locality, is not
entitled to claim at the hands of the Board the exercise, in