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46
A similar request was made to another large
General hospital on the south side of the
Thames,† but with no better result. If this had
been otherwise, there would be insurmountable
objections from a medical point of view, to one
sanitary authority conveying sick persons outside
its own boundaries, it being but reasonable and
morally equitable that each district should bear
its own burdens wherever practicable.
In Asiatic cholera, the outset of the disease is
frequently rapid, and the symptoms so urgent,
that it would be cruel to convey a patient to
any distance after the attack had once declared
itself; indeed, the sufferer might die en route if
collapse had set in.
On this point it may be permissible to
recapitulate the substance of some remarks contained
in a Report of mine dated 8th November,
1892, viz.: —
"The risk to life incurred by conveying
"patients from their homes to a distant hospital
"when once the graver symptoms have set in is
"an important factor.
† Guy'a Hospital.