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the number rose until it attained the maximum (5,023) for the
year on the 9th December. This figure, it is stated, would
have been exceeded had the Park Hospital been brought into
use in the early part of the year.
Enteric Fever patients to the number of 186 were removed
to general hospitals under the arrangements made with the
authorities of those hospitals in 1892.
Diphtheria.—The number of patients certified at the time
of removal to be suffering from diphtheria, or "diphtheritic
membranous croup," was 6,561, as against 5,334 in 1896. The
average daily number removed was 15 in the first half of the
year, and 21 in the latter half.
The Managers conveyed to other places than their
hospitals 361 persons suffering from dangerous infectious disorders,
under powers conferred by section 79 (3) of the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891. Of these, 16 were stated to have
measles, 69 scarlet fever, 134 enteric fever, 72 diphtheria, 61
erysipelas, 5 puerperal fever, 2 cholera, 1 relapsing fever, and 1
small-pox. In a considerable number of these cases payment
of the modest fee chargeable for this service was remitted on
account of the want of means of the patients.
The Committee report with satisfaction that "no hitch
of any kind" was experienced in regard to the vast number
of removals during the year, and that "no patient or nurse
had cause to complain of injury sustained while under the
charge of the service." Only one person of the numerous
staff (a man who contracted diphtheritic sore throat) appears
to have sustained illness probably referable to the dangerous
character of the work.
River Service.—The distance run collectively by the
four ambulance steamboats (Red Cross, Maltese Cross, Albert
Victor, and Geneva Cross), and the ambulance steam launch