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(d) That all expense* incident to the maintenance and treatment of such
persons in the hospitals should be defrayed out of a Common
Sanitary Fund, the Metropolis being treated for the purpose as a
single district; and
(e) That steps should be taken to alter, by Act of Parliament, the
stitution of the Board, by severing its connection with pauperism
in so far as relates to the treatment of infectious disease, and by
providing for the election of a certain proportion of the Managers by
the several Sanitary Authorities, i.e., the Vestries and District Boards
of Works.
"The Vestry have invited the Managers to consider the
greater simplicity and superior advantages of the plan of
throwing the entire expenditure incurred by the Board in
the hospital treatment of infectious disease upon a Metropolitan
Fund, as compared with that of contracts with
individual Vestries and District Boards, as proposed, under
the provisions of the Poor Law Act, 1879, and suggested
the desirability of legislation to give effect to such plan.
"In this connexion I am to recall to the recollection of your
Vestry the following resolution, which was unanimously
adopted at a Conference of Metropolitan Sanitary Authorities
held at this Town Hall, March 23rd, 1881, viz.:—
'That the admission into hospitals for the purpose of isolation of persons
suffering from infectious disease, and being without proper lodging or
accommodation, is eminently desirable in the interests of the public and
should be encouraged ; that payment for the assistance 'given in
hospitals to such persons removed thereto for isolation by the
Nuisance or the Poor-Law Authority should not be enforced ; that the
giving of such assistance should not entail on the recipients the loss of
any social or political status, and, that the cost of hospital treatment of
such infective sick persons should be made a charge on the Metropolitan
Common Poor Fund.'
"Some thirty Sanitary Authorities were represented at the
Conference, and the above resolution was submitted to the
President of the Local Government Board, April 23rd, 1881,
by a deputation composed of delegates of the Vestries and
District Boards, supported by the Council of the British
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