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purpose having been conferred on them by section 16 of the
Poor Law Act, 1879. The station in connection with the
Western District Hospital, with which we are more immediately
concerned, is approaching completion, and will
provide stabling for 15 horses, coach-house for 15 ambulances,
together with all necessary accommodation for drivers,
nurses, &c., on a site 220 feet by 76 feet. The Managers,
desirous of obtaining ambulances of the best possible construction,
offered prizes for designs, and finally made choice
of a pattern which it may fairly be hoped will prove
satisfactory.
Ambulance Steamers.—The "Red Cross," specially constructed
for the conveyance of small-pox patients to the ship
hospitals, and to the camp, is now in use, and a second and
larger vessel is in process of construction. A river
steamer has been purchased for temporary use, and will
probably be made available ultimately, for conveying recovered
patients from the hospitals on the home journey.
Wharves.—By section 6 of the Diseases Prevention
(Metropolis) Act, 1883, the Managers were empowered to
obtain land, with approaches, &c., for three wharves or landing
places within the metropolis, and one beyond the
metropolis, to facilitate the conveyance of the sick to land or
ship hospitals down the river. Effect has been given to this
enactment by the purchase of land as follows:—A site at
Rotherhithe, ("Acorn Wharf "), for the service of the southern
districts of the metropolis, and a site at Blackwall, (" Brown's
Wharf,") for the service of the north-east district. Negotiations
are in progress for the purchase of a site near Wandsworth
Bridge, to serve as a transfer depot for the use of the
Western districts, including Kensington. The land at
Long Reach, off which the hospital ships are moored, is the
fourth or extra metropolitan site. At each wharf a pier has
been, or will be, erected, from alongside which patients will be
taken from the land ambulances to the steamers, and
at which convalescents will disembark on their return