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55
This late notification is of very little value from a public health
standpoint.
It is very difficult to say how many of these cases owe the
disease to their connection with the Borough; in other words how
many of these patients are really "Finsbury cases,'' and this
difficulty is much increased by the strenuous efforts of the poor
law patients to establish a Finsbury "settlement" and thereby
obtain admission to the Infirmary for Finsbury residents situate at
Archway Road.
For just as the Marylebone Workhouse appears to be the
favourite workhouse, so the Finsbury Infirmary, known as the
Holborn Union Infirmary, Archway Road, is the popular Infirmary
for those who come under the purview of the poor law north of
the Thames.
The Poor Law Infirmary at Highgate has for many years past
had an excellent reputation amongst the poor of North London for
its humane and considerate treatment of consumption. The poor
avail themselves of every device, every subterfuge, to be admitted
here. Thus, to take an example—a male phthisis patient was
admitted to the Archway Road Infirmary and gave an address at a
Finsbury common lodging-house. Enquiry at the lodging-house
failed to identify the man. A letter was sent to the Medical
Superintendent, asking him to verify the address and to amplify
the patient's statement. The consumptive still adhered to it that
he had lived for some time at the common lodging-house. Further
enquiry at the lodging-house elicited no information of the patient—
he was quite unknown there. A second letter was sent to the
Medical Superintendent. The patient now admitted that he had
lived for years in Hampstead and had stayed for one night only at
the Finsbury common lodging-house, so that he might "get into
the Archway Road Infirmary as he did not wish to go to any other
Infirmary."
In another example a man from Blackpool stayed a few days
at a Finsbury address and was admitted to the Archway Road
Infirmary. In many instances there is evidence that these