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22
It would be difficult to exaggerate the mischief that might ensue to
the prejudice of the public health if this verdict should stand; and as
the verdict appeared to be against the weight of evidence, as it certainly
is contrary to public policy, I ventured to express a hope, at the time,
that it might be reversed on a new trial.
An application was in due course made for a new trial, and gave rise
to a long and able argument before the Court of Queen's Bench, with the
result that, subject to the decision of the Court of Appeal on certain
legal questions, the rule for a new trial was made absolute, the Lord
Chief Justice, moreover, having laid down the questions that are
to be submitted to the jury.
HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION FOR CASES OF
INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
The subject of hospital accommodation for persons suffering from
infectious diseases has engaged a good deal of attention during the year
having at length, as I stated in my last annual report, been taken up
by many of the Nuisance Authorities of the Metropolis acting in concert;
but no satisfactory solution of the difficulties by which it is beset has
hitherto been arrived at. The Limehouse District Board of Works,
which has honorably distinguished itself by the part it has taken in
endeavouring to bring about a settlement, invited the Vestries and District
Boards to appoint delegates to confer on the subject, and several
meetings were held; your Vestry having been one of the authorities
represented at the conference. Indeed it is not too much to say that
the action that had been taken by your Vestry in past years, and with
which the other Vestries, &c., appeared not to have been previously
acquainted, had a very important influence on the proceedings of the
conference, which practically gave effect to the views your Vestry had
on several occasions enunciated, and had reaffirmed in a set of
propositions framed for the guidance of your Vestry's delegates (vide
Annual Report for 1877—page 22).
In my last annual report I detailed the proceedings of the conference
down to July, 1878, set out the resolutions that had been adopted,
and stated that the conference had been adjourned until the month of
October. At the meeting held in October a great impetus was given to
the proceedings by an excerpt from one of my monthly reports (No. 12,