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81
-ship was “bound to dismiss the action.” Referring to the conduct
of the hospital his Lordship said, in concluding an elaborate
judgment, "I sincerely hope that an enterprise which has been
conducted with so much courage, so much care, and so much skill
by the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, may continue
to have the success which it has had hitherto."
However much we may sympathise with the plaintiff in
regard to the annoyance to which he is exposed by the propinquity
of such an unpleasant neighbour, we cannot but be thankful, for
the sake of the metropolis, that the action was dismissed.
It is impossible to imagine what disastrous results might have
accrued had the action been successful. Cases of small-pox
can be admitted at the London hospitals; the Ships are
totally inadequate for the reception of the patients who need to
be removed to hospital for the sake of isolation, so that reliance
must be placed on the elastic powers of the Camp to accommodate
whatever cases are fit for removal to the huts and tents. The
importance of the Camp may be estimated by the fact that, between
April and December last year, it received more than 4,000
cases, and provided for more than a thousand patients at one time.
During the first five months of the year all the sufferers
were admitted into a London hospital before being transferred
to the Ships en route to the Camp. In June the plan
of admitting patients direct from their homes into the Ships
was, as I have said, first instituted, and between that date and the
end of the year about 2,000 cases were so admitted, irrespective
of more than 3,000 cases transferred from London hospitals,
as many as 862 patients having been admitted in one month
(June). It must be apparent that the Ships could not have dealt
with a tithe of the cases that have passed through them had it not
been for the formation of the Camp, which appears to have been a
complete and unqualified medical success.
The litigation having thus terminated in the Managers' favour,
they will carry out their intention to erect at Darenth a
Permanent Small-pox Hospital, mainly for convalescent
cases, a course which has been rendered necessary by the