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water, was accomplished without any accident, involving personal
injury. On the first day of January there were 2,214
patients in the Managers' Hospitals, seven in number. The
Plaistow Hospital and the South-Western Hospital were
successively closed, the latter on the 24th February. The
highest number of patients, 1,045, was recorded on the 5th
November: the numbers thenceforth steadily declining, the
Committee ceased to send patients to the North-Western
Hospital on the 3rd December. The Committee state that delay
in removal of patients is caused by the supposition that the
order of a Relieving Officer is indispensable, and they regret
that the pressure of Parliamentary business has prevented the
Local Government Board from procuring legislation on this
subject. Their practice is to comply with applications made by
any person, but the rule that the patient shall not be removed
unless either a medical certificate, or a Relieving Officer's order,
is handed to the Ambulance Nurse, is strictly enforced. It may
be mentioned that since the establishment of the Land Ambulance
Service in 1881, no fewer than 35,183 Fever and
Small-pox patients have been removed from their homes to the
various Hospitals, and 12,775 recovered patients have been
removed from the Hospitals to their homes. From 1884 to the
end of 1888, 4,859 Small-pox patients were transferred from
the London Hospitals to the Wharves on the Thames en route
for the Hospital Ships at Long Reach; and since the opening
of the Northern Hospital, in September, 1887, 4,248 convalescing
Fever patients have been removed thereto from the
London Hospitals, and 3,798 recovered patients have been
brought back to London. In all 60,863 removals have been
effected since the establishment of this Service. The River
Ambulance Service was not established until the outbreak of
the last Small-pox epidemic in February, 1884. From that date
until the end of 1888 the Ambulance Steamers have carried
1.1,306 acutely sick Small-pox patients to the Hospital Ships,
and have brought back 10,329 recovered patients. The total
removals effected by the Land and River Ambulances number