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34
any foothold in London. Removals were effected
only through the Relieving Officers, and the patients
became, if they were not so already, "pauperised" by
their reception into the Board's Hospitals. The
depauperisation of the Hospitals led at once to a
great increase in the admissions, so that now the
public are on the whole very willing to take advantage
of the facilities offered for having their infectious sick
cared for in hospital, whereby the other members of the
patient's family can follow their avocatious without
hindrance and without risk to the public generally.
The removal of patients to hospital is now effected by
the officers of the sanitary authorities, and the only
manner in which tbe Guardians intervene is by
way of constituting the Board, and in calling
on their respective sanitary authorities for the
amounts of the precepts issued by the Board. With
the introduction of notification there was at once
a further increase in the use of the Hospitals, but by
the constitution of the Board, the system of notification
is not so beneficial as it ought to be. The
only individuals who can gauge the approximate value
of notifications from any given district is the Medical
Officer of Health of the district. He ought to be
able to say from his knowledge of the locale of the
cases what are the prospects of any considerable extension
of disease, as judged from the social and other
conditions of the neighbourhood from which the
notification comes. It is manifest that every case of