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"2. The relative advantages and disadvantages to patients and the public
of providing for small-pox and fever cases, whether among persons
of the pauper class, or persons of the non-pauper class, without
proper means of isolation, or both, by a limited number of hospitals
for the whole Metropolis under one authority, such as the Managers
of the Metropolitan Asylums District, or by parochial and district
hospitals under Vestries and District Boards.
"3. The expediency of continuing the several existing small-pox and fever
hospitals now under the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylums District;
or, if it be considered desirable that any should be closed, the accommodation
for small-pox and fever cases which should be substituted.
"4. The expediency of the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylums District
establishing additional hospitals, and of making special provision for
convalescent cases.
"5. The conditions and limitations under which the hospitals provided by
the Managers should be continued, and the general conditions and
limitations which should be observed in the case of the establishment
of new hospitals, whether by the Managers or any other authority,
so as to insure, as far as practicable, the recovery of the patients and
the protection of the public against contagion.
"6. The operation of the Acts relating to the establishment of hospitals for
small-pox and fever patients in the Metropolis, and the provisions, if
any, required for the acquisition of sites for such hospitals, whether
by agreement or otherwise; and for the protection of the authorities
providing small-pox and fever hospitals, subject to the same being
conducted with reasonable care and according to prescribed regulations,
from liability to legal proceedings, so as to secure the public against
the loss of the benefits arising from such institutions, and to make
such suggestions as you may deem expedient in connection with all
or any of the matters aforesaid."
THE VIEWS OF THE SOCIETY OF MEDICAL
OFFICERS OF HEALTH.
The Commission having informed the Society of Medical
Officers of Health, through their President, that they would be
glad to receive any expression of opinion by the Society on the
matters referred to the Commission, the Society adopted the
following Report:—
1. The available accommodation for small-pox patients is, in the opinion of
the Society, insufficient to meet the demands which might at any
moment be made upon it by a recrudescence of the existing epidemic.
So far as respects the number of beds available for the treatment of
fever cases, the existing accommodation appears to them to be fairly
sufficient for present wants. The hospitals, however, are few in number,