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I am glad to find that this recommendation was adopted,
for whilst the certified normal accommodation for fever and
diphtheria at the Board's disposal was less than 3,900 beds,
this number was for many months largely exceeded, and that
when scarlet fever and diphtheria were at their highest
4,996 cases (or nearly 1,100 above the normal accommodation)
were at one time warded in the Managers' hospitals.
The upper hospital at Gore Farm, which was built for
convalescent small-pox patients, was also again appropriated
to fever and diphtheria patients.
Last Summer the Brook Hospital, Shooter's Hill, was
opened for the reception of patients. The Park Hospital,
at Hither Green, will, it is expected, be ready this Summer;
and the Grove Hospital by the Spring of next year (1898).
A convalescent hospital for about 700 patients is also to
be erected in the South of London, near Carshalton.
It is hoped that the provision of this additional accommodation
will be sufficient to ensure the prompt removal to
hospital of all insufficiently isolated cases of scarlet fever and
diphtheria, and that this will lead during the next few years
to a reduction in the number of cases, and a corresponding
reduction in the annual mortality.
Return Cases of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria.—Ernest K.,
aged 2½ years, was removed to the S.E. Hospital, March 16th,
on account of scarlet fever. While there he suffered from
rhinorrhœa, diphtheria, broncho-pneumonia, and glandular
abscesses of the neck. Diphtheria bacilli were found, and
he returned to the scarlet fever ward when bacilli had
disappeared. When the patient was seriously ill, he was
frequently visited by his mother. He returned home on the