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number of applicants for admission, and it is now recognized
that accommodation will have to be provided, and, in fact, it
is in course of being provided, even beyond what was thought
to be my extravagant estimate of requirements, in 1892.
For in the Memorandum of the Clerk to the Board already
quoted, it is stated that " when hospitals shall have been
provided (at all the sites acquired) there will exist upwards
of 5,500 beds in the fever hospitals my view, in 1892, having
been that " provision should be made of not less than 5,000
beds for scarlet fever, ' fever,' and diphtheria, and isolation."
DANGER TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH IN CONNECTION
WITH THE REMOVAL OF THE SICK.
During the outbreak of small-pox referred to at page 26,
as on former occasions, the spread of the disease was endangered
by the foolish or ignorant conduct of people who
congregate around the door of the infected house when the
ambulance draws up, making a lane for the passage of the
sufferer when carried out by the attendants. Children are, of
course, the most frequent offenders. There can be no doubt
that this is a public danger. I was minded to write to the
Commissioner of Police to ask that the ambulance driver
might be authorised to call on a constable to prevent obstructive
collection of people near the ambulance. But as the
practice referred to prevails in all districts of the Metropolis,
I thought it better to communicate with the Asylums Board,
and did so, making request that they would endeavour to
enlist the aid of the police, for the protection of the public, by
making suitable representations to the Commissioner. This
was done with the desired effect.
STATISTICAL TABLE.
Reference to the work of the Asylums Board in 1893
may be fitly concluded by the following Table, showing the
number of cases admitted to the Managers' Hospitals from
the several Parishes and Unions which, it will be understood,
are not conterminous with the sanitary districts :—