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numbers would be reached in November, contrived, by " various
shiftings of the usual allocation of patients, to provide sufficient
accommodation until the critical period had passed and the
numbers began to decline. The necessity for opening a fourth
Hospital was thus avoided."
WHARVES.
The Managers have acquired or constructed three Wharves
for the embarcation of patients, etc., named respectively, North,
South, and West. The North Wharf is at Blackwall, the
South Wharf at Rotherhithe.
The West Wharf, at Fulham, near Wandsworth Bridge,
at which Kensington Small-pox cases will embark for the voyage
to Long Reach, but which is intended for the accommodation of
the Western District generally, as a place of embarcation for the
infectious sick, en route to the Hospital Ships, is now complete—
a pier, porter's lodge, receiving house, and river wall having been
erected. A pier-master and an assistant pier-man have been
placed in charge of the wharf, which hitherto it has not been
found necessary to use.
METROPOLITAN AMBULANCE SERVICE.
A DESIDERATUM.
The Ambulance Service for the whole of London is now,
practically, in the hands of the Asylums Board. There are
few private ambulances, and it is difficult to effect the removal
of cases of small-pox to the Highgate Hospital, or of Diphtheria
to general hospitals, persons suffering from this disease not
being admissible at the Managers' Hospitals. The result of this
state of things is that public vehicles are occasionally used for
the conveyance of the infectious sick. Such user is not unlawful,
provided that the person hiring or using the vehicle gives notice
of the condition of the sufferer to the owner or driver, who may
refuse to convey the sick person until he shall have been
indemnified for costs and expenses incurred by so doing—viz.,
for disinfection, loss of time, etc.