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74
every occasion when small-pox has been treated in the town
hospitals, the disease has spread around those hospitals, with the
effect that for many years, until patients were taken direct to
the Ships, small-pox was rarely, if ever, absent from the
Metropolis. The existence of the disease entailed heavy
expenditure in maintenance of the Hospitals in London, and of
the Ships at Long Reach, as well as of the Camps at Darenth,
to say nothing of the money value of an annual average
number of precious lives, upwards of 1,000, sacrificed to the
loathsome disease. Since it has been the rule to take the sick
out of London altogether, a plan which I proposed in 1881, the
epidemic, which was chronic before, has practically ceased. If
this result is due to the fact of removal, which has been made
possible by the existence of the Ships, no better investment of
public money was ever made. The subject came before your
Yestry, and a communication was forwarded to the Managers
in opposition to the proposal to close the Ships, a proposal to
which happily a large majority of the Board was opposed. The
Managers have kept steadily to their resolution to remove to the
Ships all cases of small-pox, when such removal is not likely to
prove prejudicial to the patient's prospect of recovery.
Extravagant outlay, properly so described, is to be condemned,
but it is true economy to be prepared for any emergency,
and, in my opinion, the Local Government Board did wisely in
making the suggestion, a few years ago—but it has not been
carried out hitherto—that the Managers should endeavour to
obtain a site to the west or south-west of the Metropolis, which
should be available for an additional hospital for convalescent
patients—having in view the possible exigencies of au
epidemic, and taking into account the requirements of London
as a whole.
FEVER HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION.
The Royal Commission recommended provision of sites and
buildings capable of accommodating 3,000 fever patients. "Of
the 3,000 cases, those in the earlier stages, probably about half,
should be provided for in the near neighbourhood of London; the
other half—the convalescents—in two other country hospitals."