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and burden of an epidemic, and makes the service unpopular.
A further ill-effect is that, when an emergency arises, it takes
time to get together an efficient set of officers, and persons with
inferior qualifications have to be relied on at the beginning of
an epidemic. The Managers desire if practicable, on the
closing of any hospital, to find work for the most valuable
members of the staff at other hospitals, so as to form a nucleus
of skilled nurses, especially for service at the opening of a
hospital on the occurrence of an epidemic. They have decided
to complete the Northern Hospital, which, by receiving convalescing
patients, enables a larger number of patients in the
acute stage of fever to be treated at the Town Hospitals. They
have found the Western Hospital inadequate for the Parishes
and Unions allocated to it, and desire to obtain the means of
enlarging it by the acquisition of four additional acres of land
adjacent to the existing site. (The London and North-Western
Railway Company are seeking to acquire this land, and the
Managers have petitioned against the Bill promoted by the
Company, who contest the locus standi of the Board.) The
Local Government Board having implied an authority to the
Managers to admit cases of Diphtheria to their hospitals, the
first patient was received October 23rd. (In all 138 beds have
been allocated to this disease, 50 at the Eastern Hospital, 46
at the North-Western, 20 at the Western, and 22 at the SouthEastern.)
The President of the Local Government Board
proposes to introduce a Bill to enable the Managers lawfully
to deal with cases of this disease; meanwhile the Board sanction
the expenditure incurred. Application was made to the
Managers to admit cases of Measles in the autumn, when the
disease was very prevalent and fatal, the deaths during the
months of November, December, and January averaging no less
than 133 weekly. Measles being "a dangerous infectious
disease of a febrile character,” the Chairman considers it reasonable
to suppose that it might to a considerable extent be
mitigated by the prompt and proper isolation of cases which
cannot be isolated in their own homes. The Managers,