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65
January 30, 1881 : only 55 in a period of five weeks. I drew
the particular attention of the Commission to this point, because
the numbers were so very small absolutely, and so small in
comparison with the numbers later on, when, however, it was
said that atmospheric influence played no part in the spread of
disease; and because it seemed to me that if Mr. Power's conclusions
were right, if the atmospheric theory, as I understand
it, were true, this important deduction must be drawn from
the facts, viz., that a hospital, however small, must be a public
danger, even at 1,000 feet distance and upwards, and would
be such a nuisance as ought not to be inflicted on any
locality.
Ardently and successfully as I have advocated the provision
of country hospitals for cases able to be removed to a distance,
I know that there must always be a considerable residuum of sick
persons imperatively needing to be isolated, and yet too ill
to be taken long distances. These will be the worst of the
acute cases, and for them alone Town Hospitals are to be retained.
But if the theory of concentration of poison, and its
dissemination atmospherically, is true, a continuance of the evils
hitherto experienced may be anticipated, and it would probably
be found better to keep the sick at home, emptying the infected
houses of their other inmates, at whatever cost, than to inflict
dire injury on the surrounding districts by transferring them
to the hospitals. At present I would fain hope—notwithstanding
the weight properly attaching to the opinions of those eminent
authorities who have endorsed the views set forth in Mr.
Power's able, laborious, and conscientious report, that the
attractive theory formulated in his propositions, accounting
for the spread of small-pox in the vicinity of hospitals by
aerial dissemination of infectious matter, will not be generally
accepted without further investigation and more decisive
evidence.