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48
the Ambulance Authority for removal of the infectious sick of all
classes. In 1884, therefore, I addressed a communication to the
Managers, proposing that they should place their ambulances at
the service of the medical profession and Medical Officers of
Health, with or without payment, for the conveyance of infectious
sick persons. The Managers replied that they were, at that
time, " not in a position to undertake the removal of any cases
of infectious disease beyond those which are to be received into
hospitals under their own control." Commenting on this reply
in my Annual Report for 1884, I ventured to express a conviction
that the Managers would, in course of time, recognise the desirableness
of giving effect to my views. That time arrived in
1888, when the Managers stated their opinion, " that the conveyance
of infectious cases by public vehicles should be prohibited
by law," and expressed willingness to " use the machinery they
possess for the prompt and economical removal of infectious
cases." Having communicated their altered views to the Local
Government Board, the President of that Board obtained from
Parliament the desired powers, with others of not less importance
from the Public Health point of view, in the Poor Law Act, 1889,
the sanitary provisions of which I summarised (at page 64) in
my last Annual Report.
Land Service : Ambulance Stations.—The recommendation
of the Royal Commission on Infectious Hospitals, that the
Asylums Board should have " entire control of the ambulances,
by which all other modes of conveyance should be as far as
possible superseded," has been carried out by the establishment
of Ambulance Stations at three of the Managers' Hospitals
(Eastern at Homerton, South-eastern at Deptford, and
Western at Fulham), under the provisions of Section 16,
Poor Law Act, 1879. Small-pox patients are taken down the
river in Ambulance Steamers, specially built or fitted for the
purpose—embarking at Wharves which the Managers were
authorised to provide by Section 6 of the Diseases Prevention
(Metropolis) Act, 1883. Kensington patients are removed by