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57
as regards the poor, express provision has been made
by the law: and it might be well for other classes,
under similar exposure to attack, to consider how
far they could arrange for their households a
similar plan of protection.
Under any Order in Council which brings into
action the extraordinary power of the Nuisances
Removal Law, the General Board of Health has
authority to enjoin on all Boards of Guardians
throughout the country, that they provide, for
"persons afflicted by or threatened with" the disease,
such medical aid as may be required: and the actual
working of this has been that, on all occasions
of epidemic Cholera prevailing in particular
localities, the General Board of Health has called
on the local Boards of Guardians to establish
systematic house-to-house visitation, for discovering
and treating among the poor all premonitory
symptoms of the disease.
In the too probable event of its becoming necessary
next year to establish this system of medical
organisation in parts of the metropolis, I have no
reason to doubt that a requisition to the above effect
will be addressed to the Guardians of the City poor;
and, in this anticipation, I think it desirable to
bring, in conclusion, one more point under notice of
your Honourable Court. During the former invasion,
the Guardians within the City of London resisted
the requirements of the General Board of Health;
and the first fourteen weeks of the epidemic consequently
passed without the establishment of any