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difficulties were overcome, not one patient being refused
admission.
One hundred and six patients certified to be suffering from
small-pox were removed. "They were taken in the first
instance to one of the Town Hospitals, and those found to have
small-pox were conveyed to the Hospital Ships : 44 cases,
however, were found not to have the disease, and were sent
back to their homes." "The number of small-pox admissions
increased during the latter months of the year," the cases being
generally "traceable to infected persons arriving in London."
"Information as to the probable cause of an outbreak coming
to the knowledge of the Committee was at once communicated
to the Medical Officer of the District concerned," and "this no
doubt materially assisted in the success of the measures taken
to prevent the spread of the disease. Outbreaks occurred in 17
out of 30 Parishes and Unions comprising the Metropolitan
(Poor Law) District, but did not in any instance assume serious
proportions." The Steamers, Redcross, Maltese Cross, Albert
Victor, Swallow (steam pinnace), and Marguerite (steam launch),
were all employed in turn, and ran in the aggregate 5,802
miles. The cost of the river service was nearly £5,000, that of the
land service being about £6,000. Referrine; to the cost of the
River Service, the Oommittee observe that " the justification for
this expenditure cannot be sought in work actually performed,
so much as in the maintenance in constant readiness for immediate
expansion of an organisation the value of which, in the
event of a small-pox epidemic arising, cannot be exaggerated,
and which could not then be established without serious delay,
and only by an extravagant outlay."
The Committee report "considerable delay in the removal
of patients still caused by the intervention of the Relieving
Officer," and note with satisfaction that this subject is " receiving
the serious attention of the Local Government Board."
The work of the department, though so much greater in
extent than in the preceding year, was unattended with any