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The grounds adjacent to both of the hospitals are well-wooded, with
chestnuts, oaks, silver birches, etc.; and in the summer are carpeted
with wild flowers and beautified by shrubs.
Gore Farm is only two miles distant from Dartford; and therefore,
not too far from the Metropolis—the Managers' Motor Ambulance
could easily perform the double journey in one day—but far enough
away to be out of the soot-area and London fogs, a matter of no
little consideration in dealing with a disease whose most fatal
incidence is upon the respiratory system.
The locality is bracing, the air pure, the site dry, the chalk
coming to within a little distance of the surface over most of the
estate ; the water supply is good and assured, the drainage satisfactory.
The hospitals are well sheltered from north and east
winds; and it may be taken as reliable evidence of the healthiness of
site and buildings that in the year 1900 of 3,220 convalescents
treated in the Upper hospital not one died.
The Need of Metropolitan Sanatoria. —At the Conference of Poor
Law Authorities in 1900, Dr. Downes, Poor Lew Medical Inspector
to the Local Government Board, informed the delegates that, in July
of that year, there were 1,562 consumptive patients in Metropolitan
institutions— lnfirmaries and Workhouses —of whom 1,000 could be
moved to a sanatorium, or sanatoria, within 50 miles of London, and
of the total number 400 were in the initial stage of the dis ease.
How many non-chargeable sufferers there may be in the
Metropolis for whom no adequate provision exists, or can be provided
excepting by a central authority, such as the Asylums Board, it is
not possible to say. But they are a great host as may be inferred
from the fact that in 1902, the deaths from phthisis in registration
London numbered 7,621, those from all the diseases now admissible
to the Managers' hospitals being 3,643, including 1,314 from smallpox,
a disease rarely epidemic, and which during the current year, to
date, has been the cause of only ten deaths.
The Alternative Use of Gore Farm. — The hospitals when not
required for small-pox patients, have been utilised for fever and
diphtheria convalescents. But that was at a time when the accommodation
for sufferers from these diseases was less than at present.
The Managers now have 5,250 beds at their disposal in the Town
Hospitals, and the Northern Convalescent Hospital at Winchmore
Hill; a number which will be increased to over 6,000 on the completion
of the Southern Convalescent Hospital at Carshalton. That
fine site of 300 acres, moreover, would, if necessary, allow of the
provision of a much larger number of beds than the 800 now in
course of being provided. It is, of course, possible that even this