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102
at any time within six months after his discharge from such
Hospital or after his death.
The powers thus given to the Sanitary Authority to contract for
the maintenance of the sick in Hospitals, was a roundabout way
of effecting the depauperisation of medical relief in the Managers'
hospitals which has since been brought about, as I had so long
urged it should be, by direct legislation, viz. : in the Diseases
Prevention (Metropolis Act), 1883. The 15th Section of the
Poor Law Act, 1879, has remained inoperative hitherto, the
Managers not having applied to the Local Government Board for
authority to enable them to enter into contracts with Vestries, &c.
Within the last year or two, however, some of the Vestries have
been put to great straits to provide for the admittance at
hospitals of cases of small-pox and fever, and this difficulty
led them to make application to the Managers to receive such
cases on payment of expenses. But while the Managers were
quite willing to receive all cases sent by the Believing Officer, (and,
as I have before said, all cases from this parish have been received
for many years past on the orders of the Relieving Officers, thanks
to the co-operation of the Board of Guardians), they were unable
to receive any case lawfully without the order of a Relieving Officer.
In many parishes the Guardians have, very unwisely, refused to
co-operate with the Sanitary Authority, e.g., by directing the
Relieving Officers to give orders for "non-paupers"; and as there
was practically no hospital accommodation other than that provided
by the Managers, the sick had to be treated at home, and thus the
spread of disease was brought about.
At a meeting held on 25th October last, the Managers received
and adopted a report by the Committee for General Purposes
(arising out of the above mentioned applications), which recommended
that the Local Government Board be requested to place
themselves in communication with the several Sanitary Authorities
of the Metropolis, with the view of issuing an order which should
empower the Managers to contract with such authorities for the
reception into the Managers' Hospitals of cases of dangerous
infectious disease other than those chargeable to the various