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Gayton in his considerate management of the nurses, appears to
have carried out the only system on which the nursing of a smallpox
hospital can be successful, combining restricted leave and
careful isolation with kind treatment and plenty of recreation. If
this system could have been carried out at Fulham, as I had
ventured to recommend in the spring of 1881, it would probably
have proved equally successful and equally beneficial to the nurses,
the patients, and the public in the surrounding district.
At Darenth there was a suspicion, which was, as Dr. Gayton
believes, unfounded, of a local outbreak of small-pox (two cases
in one family) a mile from the Camp, owing to a visit paid by a
male officer.
The general health of all attached to the Camp was remarkably
good, "and the patients, taken altogether, were wonderfully well
behaved, appreciated the kindness and consideration shown them,
and not a few by letter returned to give thanks. ... In no instance
was an attempt made to get away from the grounds." I may add
that your Vestry's Sanitary Inspectors frequently heard the praises
of the Camp from those who had shared in its advantages, many
of whom spoke of their sojourn at Darenth as one of their happiest
experiences; a holiday at once pleasant and in its results highly
beneficial.
Patients on their discharge were called up at 4.30 a.m., bathed,
and clothed in new garments. After breakfast they were taken to
Deptford Hospital, and thence by another vehicle to their own
homes. "The very smallest element of risk" in removal was excluded,
and every patient "left Darenth, in the truest acceptance of
the term,cured, and free from infection," notwithstanding the depressing
nature of the disease, and which, if they had been discharged in
ordinary circumstances from one of the London hospitals, would have
left many of them unfit for work for a long time. Dr. Gayton "found
that fourteen or more days' residence in the purest of atmospheres,
with abundance of good wholesome food, strict attention to
cleanliness, ample exercise, and whatever medical treatment was
required, combined to bring about such a condition that every man
and woman went away from the Camp in a perfectly fit state to
recommence their respective duties the following day,"—an
"outcome" which Dr. Gayton justly considers "not only desirable
from a sanitary point of view, but economical as regards the
public finances."