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109
Wo would remind you, however, that on the Metropolitan
Asylums Board would devolve the duty first of all of providing
accommodation, as the hospital authority for London, and only on
their failure to provide sufficient beds, would your Board be called
upon to make such provision.
2. The provision of places of refuge we consider of even more
practical importance than that of hospitals, as it is known that only
a small proportion of the cases can be removed to hospital without
risk of death taking place in the ambulance, owing to the sadden
onset and rapid course of Asiatic Cholera. It thereforo follows
that many cases must remain in their homes, which would involve
the provision of sufficient accommodation for the healthy members
of families in which cases occurred.
We beg to suggest that the Guardians should be approached as
to their willingness to graut tho use of wards in the Workhouse
(not the Infirmary) for this purpose, should necessity arise, the
pauper inmates being temporarily boarded out. If this arrangement
were found to be feasible it would meet the requirements of
a large part of the district.
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. With regard to the duties relating to the general
treatment of the sick, &c., we are of opinion that they would be
best performed by the adoption of the arrangements which were
satisfactorily carried out during the Cholera epidemics of 1854 and
1866, and which were as follows:—The Local Committees were
deputed by the Board to fulfil tho instructions contained in an
"Order iu Council" (which corresponded with the regulations
herein referred to). The assistance and co-operation were invited
of all the registered medical practitioners residing in the district,
of whom a certain number undertook the treatment of all persons
suffering from the epidemic, who might apply to them by night or
by day, and were authorised to order nurses, nourishment, stimulants,
and disinfectants, or whatever was nccessary for such treatment,
Additional inspectors were appointed, who made a careful
house-to-house visitation, and brought to the notice of the medical
attendant any case of the disease they met with, effected tho removal
of any existing sanitary defect, ensured an early interment of tho
dead, the destruction of infected clothing unfit to be otherwise
dealt with, and the disinfection of the house. They also furnished
disinfectants to all applicants needing them.