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21
Since the closing of the Croydon Infirmary on
October 31st to all except pauper cases, there has been no
Isolation Hospital at all for this district. The Authority,
I believe, contemplate approaching the Croydon County
Council, with a view to making some arrangement with
them, to admit cases of infectious disease into their
Isolation Hospital, when it is completed. This hospital,
however, will not, I am informed, be completed tor two
years at least, and it is therefore essential that, at any rate,
some temporary building should be erected to tide over
that period. I have already reported to this effect to the
Authority, and a small committee was appointed to consider
any sites for such a building. A site, in an extremely
convenient situation, near Mitcham Junction Station, on
some land belonging to the Croydon Corporation was
first selected, but the Corporation have declined to entertain
the proposal, owing to " fear of litigation." I am,
therefore, at the present time engaged in making
enquiries about a variety of other sites, and I sincerely
trust that before the coming year is far advanced, this
district will possess some hospital for this purpose.
Disinfection.—One hundred and three houses have
been disinfected by the servants of the Authority during
the last six months of the year, and disinfectants, with
instructions as to their use, were issued to every infected
house.
The question of the disinfection of houses after infectious
disease is an important one, and everything
depends on the manner in which it is done. I reported
to the Authority on the total inadequacy of the arrangement
I found in existence, whereby bedding, clothes, &c.,
were supposed to be disinfected by exposing them to the
fumes of burning sulphur. Arrangements were, in