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38
At present no report has been made on the subject by the
Department. I had little information to offer, for no communication
was made to me, locally, with regard to the epidemic,
Influenza not being (though it might be made) a notifiable disease
under the provisions of the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act:
I had not, moreover, any considerable opportunities for forming
opinions. I think, however, that the disease is not merely
infectious, but also that it is due to some specific atmospherical
conditions, which alone would seem adequate to account for the
sudden and practically simultaneous attack of so many persons in
public institutions and trade establishments. It is hardly
necessary to mention, perhaps, that at the present time (May) a
recrudescence of the epidemic is producing even more wide-spread
havoc than the original outbreak in January, 1890.
METROPOLITAN ASYLUMS BOARD.
The work of the Asylums Board, important at all times to
those concerned in sanitary administration within the Metropolis,
has of late years acquired additional interest owing to the steps
taken by the Managers to make their hospitals more and more a
refuge for the infectious sick in need of isolation. Accommodation
has now been provided adequate to the average needs of the
population ; and during the last four 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 effect the Central
Authority for London in regard to infectious diseases. The
work of the Board is summed up in three reports, issued annually
by the Chairman (Sir E. H. Galsworthy), the Statistical
Committee, and the Ambulance Committee, of which, as usual, I
submit abstracts.