View report page

17
from a sense of public duty, and for the benefit of the community, con
gents to go, or let his child go, to a rate supported hospital? Would not
a vestry hospital be a 'rate supported hospital?' I confess I fail to see
any practical diiference between hospitals supported by rates. It is a
question of taking the money out of the right hand pocket or the left.
In such a case all distinotions of pauper or non-pauper should be abolished.
Treat all alike as suffering from a personal calamity, which may grow
into a public danger, and act on the principle salus populus, suprema lex.
But again I say, and if we are to consider questions of economy, if there
be a difference in the eost of one plan and the other, the palm of economy
must be awarded to the Asylum plan, for the Managers and the G-uardians
can, as already stated, recover the expenses of maintenance if they think
fit; and the Guardians, at least, are already provided with a staff of collectors
for this very purpose.
"The present outcry is for a 'Central Health Board for the Metropolis.'
The Asylum Managers practically constitute such a board, and, if
necessary, they could be endowed with legal powers to provide all the
hospital accommodation required for the safe treatment of the infectious diseases.
A measure to extend their power in this direction could be passed
next month if Parliament thought fit. Practically, such a measure would
be tantamount to a consolidation of sanitary authorities—a central board
to provide hospitals, local boards, with an efficient staff to carry out the
details of sanitary work, to visit the sick, to remove suitable cases to the
hospitals, to see to disinfection, &c. The benefit to this metropolis would
be incalculable. The fact, however, cannot be too often repeated, that,
practically, the Managers can even now do all, or nearly all, that is
necessary, at the present time, though theoretically it may be ultra vires.
Therefore, it is desirable the law should be amended; and it is fair to
infer that the Government, which has consolidated the Public Health Acts
for all England, London only excepted, and at the head of which is the
author of the famous saying,'Sanitas sanitatum, omnia sanitas,' would yield
a ready consent to such a measure; while the skill and energy with which
the Managers of the Asylums Board have hitherto performed their arduous
and important duties afford ample guarantees for the success of so grand
and beneficent a scheme.
If, however, contrary to my expestation, this plan should prove impracticable—from
whatever cause—permanent provision of hospital accommodation
may be made by the voluntary united, or the independent, action
of vestries and district boards, or by the creation of a Central Health
Board, on the model of the Metropolitan Board of Works, or the Sick
Asylums Board, for which, however, Parliamentary powers would be
necessary."
It may be added that the Society of Medical Officers of Health,
before which I had on more than one occasion advocated my views,
as set out above, took into consideration the report of the Managers,
and expressed agreement "with the opinion 'that adequate
provision for the isolation and treatment of epidemic infectious
disease in the Metropolis does not exist,' and under existing circumstances
the Society endorses the conclusion that such provision
could be best made in a comprehensive and systematic manner by
one Central Authority acting for the whole Metropolis."
"As regards the constitution of the Authority and the administration
of the infectious disease Hospitals, the Society is of
opinion that such Hospitals, regarded in the light of a sanitary
provision for the advantage of the general population, should be