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57
of making arrangements for the prevention and treatment
of cholera."
"Those arrangements (they stated) would comprise the appointment of
Committees for the purpose of carrying out the Regulations, the
division of the sanitary district into special areas, the appointment of
medical visitors for the visitation of the poorer houses, and the detection
of cholera and diarrhoea, the supply of medical attendance and nursing,
and of medicine and disinfectants, and the provision of dispensaries, and
of such additional hospitals and places of refuge as might be necessary
for the several parishes and districts ; the hospitals being provided for
the reception of those cholera patients who could not be properly treated
in their own homes, and the places of lodgment for those persons, not
actually sick, whom it might be right to keep under observation, or to
accommodate, while their homes were either under disinfection, or were
devoted to sick persons who could not properly be removed."
The Board, moreover, "in view of the possible recurrence of
cholera, during the (then) approaching summer and autumn,
in continental ports with which this country is in rapid and
close communication," thought it right that the Sanitary
Authority "should take into their early consideration the
question of their readiness to meet any emergency that might
arise." They, therefore, requested to be informed how far
the preliminary action taken in 1892, or since decided on by
the Sanitary Authority, might be regarded as enabling them,
without undue delay, to perform the duties which would
devolve on them in the event of the Board finding it necessary
to issue Regulations of the kind referred to.
Shortly after the issue of the circular letter, cases of
cholera occurred at some of the eastern ports, notably
Grimsby and Hull, and several persons died of the disease.
The assistance of the medical staff of the Local Government
Board was freely rendered to the Sanitary Authorities of the
affected places, and everything that could be done to prevent
the spread of the disease was done. The indications happily
pointed to the probability that the measures taken would, as
was the case in 1892, protect the country generally, and the
metropolis in particular, from an epidemic of this terrible
disease; and although here and there, at inland places,