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tively, and moored off Deptford, at the old hospital ship, Dreadnought's moorings,
were opened for the reception of cases at about the middle of July, at a time,
therefore, when there were plenty of beds available in the hospitals on shore.
The Managers appear, in this matter, to have acted under pressure of the Local
Government Board, which must be held responsible for the very great expense
incurred—needlessly incurred, as it appears, the hospital-ship scheme having been
initiated subsequently to the opening of Darenth Convalescent Camp Hospital, an
event which effectually put an end, for the time being, to the difficulty of finding
accommodation for acute cases in the permanent land hospitals. But to resume:—
The Atlas provides 180 beds in three wards, one on each deck. Wharf premises
known as "Potter's Ferry,' have been secured for the embarkation of patients, on
the north side of the river, opposite Greenwich Pier. The patients are shipped from
the ambulances on to a barge specially prepared for their reception, and which is
towed to the ship by a steam launch. The Managers have further provided an
Ambulance Station at George Street, London Fields, in the parish of Hackney, a
position central to the several parishes allocated to the ship. Here are placed
the horses and ambulances, and staff of drivers, &c., for the transfer of patients
from their homes to the wharf, as well as a resident staff of nurses, &c.—all the
employes being accommodated on the premises, thus preventing contact with
the public. The station is placed in telephonic communication with the
Offices of the Board in Norfolk Street, whence a message will be sent to the
station directing the removal of a case as soon as it has been reported, by
telegram, by the parochial officer. The ambulance will, accompanied by a nurse,
proceed to the address of the patient, who will be conveyed direct to the wharf
for removal to the ship.
Arrangements have been made for the burial of the dead to take place from
Homerton Hospital.
It remains to be seen whether wooden ships are as well adapted for the treatment
of small-pox as their advocates believe.
POPULATION, INHABITED HOUSES, &c.
In my last Annual Report, referring to the probable population
of Kensington I remarked that it was difficult, if not impossible,
to estimate, with accuracy, the population of "sub-districts,"
and "the relative numbers of the sexes, nine years after a census, and
in a parish which had developed at once largely and irregularly."
The estimate, however, had to be made, and I assumed that the
population of the parish in July, 1880, was not less than 158,850,
giving reasons at the same time for the opinion that it might have
been taken to be 161,450, but that I preferred an understatement to