View report page

44
called to the necessity of careful supervision of the sources of
water supply in the rivers, and of the storage reservoirs, &c.";
on the ground that if cholera should be imported into the
metropolis it might be spread, as on a former occasion,
through the agency of the water companies.
The "Diseases Prevention (Metropolis) Bill," of which I
gave a full account in my last annual report, (page 66),
became law in August, its nominal object being to make
"better provision as regards the Metropolis for the isolation
and treatment of persons suffering from cholera and other
infectious diseases." Section 2 constitutes the Managers of the
Asylums Board, equally with the Vestries and District Boards,
a "Local Authority" under the Diseases Prevention Act,
1855, and enables them to utilize their buildings, ambulances,
staff, &c., for the execution of powers and duties conferred
or imposed on them under both the Acts. Immediately after
the passing of the Act the Managers undertook to provide a
limited amount of temporary hospital accommodation for
patients of both sexes, and for the whole Metropolitan area,
irrespective of parochial boundaries. They not merely agreed
to utilize any of their buildings, ambulances, &c., and to
arrange for the temporary use of empty buildings, or of small
plots of land whereon to erect huts, to be under the charge
of their own officers, but they also negotiated arrangements
with the governing bodies of general hospitals, and with
Boards of Guardians, for the employment of such spare accommodation
in Hospitals, Workhouses and Infirmaries, as
could be made available either for the reception of patients
in infected district, or for the accommodation of ordinary
inmates of such establishments who could be transferred
to cholera-free districts so as to furnish room for the sick
in the vacated buildings in cholera-stricken districts.
Many of the Boards of Guardians, as well as the governing
bodies of voluntary hospitals, signified their willingness to
co-operate with the Managers in making the needful provision
of hospital accommodation: the Metropolis,therefore,