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then entertained, and which subsequent experience has strengthened
and confirmed, were set out in a letter to the Managers,
published at page 15 in my Annual Report for 1876, and in a
Report on the subject, dated January 10th, 1877.
It will be interesting to learn, in due course, the general
purport of the replies of the several Authorities to the circular
letter of the Managers, and to see to what extent the views expressed
in the above documents are generally entertained. I shall
hope to find that there is a growing sentiment in favour of
placing the provision of hospital accommodation for all classes in
the able hands of the Managers, while reserving to the Sanitary
Authorities, in their respective districts, the carrying out in all
other respects of the provisions of the Sanitary Acts for the prevention
of the spread of infectious diseases.
Shortly after the above section on "hospital accommodation" was
in type, a communication was addressed by the Limehouse Board
of Works to the Vestries, &c., inviting them to appoint Delegates
to attend a Conference "on the subject of the provision of hospital
accommodation for persons suffering from infectious diseases."
Your Vestry appointed four Delegates—viz., Drs. Daniell
and Pocock, H. Jacobs, and W. A. Lindsay, Esqrs.—with whom I
attended the Conference held at the Cannon-street Hotel, on the
16th June. At the first meeting no decision was arrived at, and
this negative result appearing to be due to a want of information
on the subject on the part of some of the Delegates from other
parishes, and your Vestry having given great attention to it on
many occasions during the last few years, your Delegates thought
it desirable to cast into the form of a set of propositions the views
which had at sundry times been expressed by your Vestry, and
to recommend that a copy of them be sent to each of the Delegates
from the several Vestries and District Boards of Works.
The propositions referred to were as follows:—
1. That the provision of hospital accommodation for the large
class of persons whose isolation in hospitals is necessary for
preventing the spread of infectious diseases can be best made
in a comprehensive and systematic manner by one Central
Authority acting for the whole Metropolis.
2. That the Metropolitan Asylum District Board should be
much Central Authority, the Managers already having in the
several hospitals erected under their auspices, nearly sufficient
accommodation to meet the requirements of the sick of all classes—
excepting those who may be able and willing to pay for hospital
treatment, and for whom provision is already made, or could be made
at the London Fever Hospital and the London Small-pox Hospital.
3. That steps should be taken to obtain an Act of Parliament
to alter the constitution of the Metropolitan Asylum District