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degree to the Vestry themselves, but is important in indicating
the intention of a large Metropolitan Sanitary Authority to
protect its parishioners by every means in its power against
an epidemic of a loathsome disease.
At a time when the hospitals to which we refer were closed,
and the duty of providing for all classes, be they paupers or
persons of higher social grade, was thrown upon the Vestry,
the Small Pox Hospital at Highgate, into which the Vestry
had been in the habit of sending persons suffering from small
pox, whom it was necessary to remove for the sake of the
public health, was filled by sick persons from other parts of
the Metropolis. The Vestry were therefore left with the
alternative cf leaving the sick in their own homes, or of providing
other accommodation for their reception. Unfortunately
no laud which was available as a site for a hospital in
our parish could be used for the special disease for which the
Vestry had to provide. Very considerable pains were taken to
seek for an appropriate site, but without avail, and until the
thoughtfulness of the Vestry Clerk suggested that a temporary
site might be obtained from the Burial Board, there was
every reason to believe that this means of checking the spread
of small pox among our parishioners would have to be
abandoned. The site which was selected at Finehley
was chosen on account of its far removal from any dwelling—the
nearest house being not nearer than 1700 feet from
the hospital, while the distance of the institution from the
nearest road, which was but little frequented, was fully
300 feet.
The hospital which was there erected, and which was
opened on April 29th, for the reception of persons suffering
from small pox, consisted of a central kitchen, made of brick
and iron, a wooden shed for laundry purposes, and canvas
tents for patients and the resident staff. Each ward tent had
a floor of wood raised above the level of the earth, and was
heated by a hot water pipe supplied by a small furnace placed
outside the tent. The walls and roof consisted of two layers
of canvas separated a few inches from each other. The
dimensions of each tent for patients were 30 feet long, by
16 feet wide, and 7 feet high at the sides, and contained
3800 cubic feet of space. In each of these were placed eight
patients. Duriug the months when these tents were occupied
the temperature of the atmosphere ranged from twenty-seven
degrees to seventy-five degrees.
Each tent was provided with means of ventilation in the
roof, and it was found that with reasonable care during the
cold weather the internal temperature of the tents could be