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recent years, owing to the steps taken by the Managers to make
the Hospitals more than ever a refuge for the infectious sick
in need of isolation. Accommodation has been, or shortly will
be, provided adequate to the needs of the population; and,
during the last two years, beds have been placed at the disposal
of registered practitioners, as well as sanitary officials and the
resident medical officers of General Hospitals, whose applications
for the admission of patients, when made in compliance
with the reasonable requirements of the Board's regulations, are
now invariably attended to without question or delay. The
Board indeed have become in practice the Central Hospital
Authority for London in regard to infectious diseases, and they
discharge right well the duties of the position.
THE CHAIRMAN'S ANNUAL REPORT.
The Chairman of the Board, Sir E. H. Galsworthy, in his
Report for the year ended March 25th, 1889, refers with satisfaction
to the comparative freedom from Scarlet Fever in the
Metropolis during that period, and to the marked diminution in
the average and aggregate number of patients for whom the
Managers had to provide accommodation. In 1887, 5,900 Scarlet
Fever patients were admitted; in 1888, 4,408. In the former
year the maximum number under treatment at one and the
same time was 2,611; in 1888, 954. This diminution in the
number of patients enabled the Managers to discontinue the
use of the Plaistow Hospital, to temporarily close the Southwestern
Hospital at Stockwell, and the Northern Hospital for
convalescing patients, at Winchmore Hill, and to make a
reduction in the staff of officers at each and all of the infectious
hospitals. Reference is made to the ill-effects consequent on
the reduction in the staff of officers, on grounds of economy,
it being difficult to replace the discharged officers. It is justly
observed that such discharging of the staff is not conducive to
the good working of the Institutions, inasmuch as it causes
dissatisfaction to officers cast adrift after having borne the heat