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73
FREE INFECTIOUS HOSPITALS.
In the same report (January 10th, 1877), I pleaded for free
admission of all persons whose isolation in Hospitals was
necessary for preventing the spread of infections disease. I
pointed out that in a large proportion of the cases such isolation
was necessary for the protection of the public, quite as much as
for the welfare of the sufferers, and that in a multitude of such
cases the sufferers had gone voluntarily, or, in the case of
children, had been allowed to be removed to hospital, from a
sense of duty. This being so, it was unreasonable, I said, to
demand from the individual sufferer repayment of expenses
incurred in the interests of the public. I compared the outbreak
of infectious disease to the outbreak of fire. The extinction
of fires, I said, was undertaken at the common cost for the
common good: in like manner the charge for hospitals should
be regarded as a premium of insurance against a danger as much
more serious than fire as life is more precious than property.
These views met with much opposition, based, to some extent, on
the supposition that there was already a large recoup which
would have to be sacrificed. But at a later date (1881), I was
enabled to show that only about £58 had been contributed by
79 patients, out of 3,100 admitted to the hospitals, from 20
Unions and Parishes, in one year (1880-81). There is now a
consensus of opinion that my views were correct, and the
" Asylums " have become in practice, but as yet are not in law,
Free Hospitals. I may add that by section 15 of the Poor
Law Act, 1879, the Asylums Board was enabled, with the
approval of the Local Government Board, to contract with any
Vestry, &c., "for the reception and maintenance in the
hospitals of the Managers of any person suffering from any
dangerous infectious disorder within the district of the said
Vestry, &c." This section remained a dead letter for several
years, because the majority of the Boards of Guardians,
cordially co-operating with the Sanitary Authorities, removed
the sick upon application, whether by the friends or the