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85
invited the several Boards of Guardians in the Metropolis to
connect their offices with those of the Board. As the outlay
would be £20 per annum only, and would carry the privilege of
giving any assenting Board the means of communicating with all
telephonic subscribers, the terms may be considered reasonable.
Ambulance Steamers.— The Red Cross, specially constructed
for the conveyance of small-pox patients to the Ship
Hospitals and to the Camp, has been supplemented by a second and
larger vessel named the Maltese Cross, and by a river steamer the
Albert Victor, which has been converted for the purpose.
“Mild” cases of small-pox, as already mentioned, are sent
direct to the Hospital Ships, and sometimes it has happened that
a mild case has been reported too late in the day to enable the
removal of the patient to be effected in time for the last departure
of the Ambulance Steamer from the several wharves, the result
being that the patient's removal has had to be postponed until the
following day. I ventured to call the attention of the Managers
to this subject in December, at which date the Red Cross left the
wharf at 6 p.m. I proposed a later departure, which, I thought
might have been made feasible with the aid of the electric light.
The Managers, with their usual promptitude in acting upon any
suggestion calculated to promote the efficiency of their work, at
once arranged that the last departure of the ambulance steamer
should take place at 9 p.m., which had the desired "effect of
considerably diminishing the number of mild cases left in their
homes till the day following the application for removal." I am
of opinion that it would be well to admit "mild" cases to the
Managers' London hospitals, if only for a single night, rather than
to allow the patient to remain at home for even so short a period
after application for removal, but the Managers' regulations do not
allow of "mild" cases being admitted at the land hospitals. In this
respect I think the regulations might be amended with advantage.*
The ambulance service of London is now practically in the
*In July (1885), the Managers intimated their desire to remove all cases
to the Ship's direct, when such removal would not be dangerous to life, nor
prejudice the patient's chance of recovery.