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28
APPENDIX.
Small Pox Camp Hospital Reports.
Report No. I.
TO THE VESTRY OF SAINT MARY, ISLINGTON.
Gentlemen,
Your Sanitary Committee Report:—
That they have for some time been watching with
considerable anxiety the progress of the small pox epidemic now
so seriously affecting the Metropolis, and with it the increasing
difficulty experienced by the District Asylums Board in providing
sufficient hospital accommodation for the isolation of patients
whose removal becomes necessary.
This difficulty was especially felt during the weeks ending the
23rd and 30th April. During the latter week, in Islington alone,
21 persons were unable to obtain admission to the Asylums District
Hospitals, and although some of the patients were subsequently
admitted, others had become too ill to bear removal.
In view of the possible recurrence of a similar contingency,
your Committee deem it desirable that the Vestry should be prepared
to meet promptly such an emergency in future, either by
being in readiness to provide temporary hospital accommodation
themselves, or by some arrangement having been made for the
reception of patients by another authority who may have already
made such provision, in accordance with the 37th section of "The
Sanitary Act, 1866."
Your Committee therefore put themselves in communication
with the Burial Board, who at once accorded their permission for
the erection by the Vestry of tents or other temporary accommodation
for small pox patients, on a portion of the spire ground
adjoining the Finchley Cemetery.