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50
interesting as it is, has nothing eventful to chronicle as in 1889—
a year which, as the Committee stated in their report, was "rendered
memorable in the annals of Isolation of Infectious Disorders by
the passing of the Poor Law Act, 1889, by one section of which
the Managers' Hospitals were made available for the reception
of any persons, irrespective of their means, who may be suffering
from small-pox, diphtheria, or fever ; whilst, by another section,
the Managers' Ambulance system was extended and completed."
The Committee gave in that report, under the headings
" Admission of Patients to Managers' Hospitals " and " General
Conveyance of Persons suffering from Infectious Disease," a
succinct and highly interesting account of the steps by which
the Asylums Board, from being merely the Authority for providing
hospital accommodation for paupers suffering from infectious
disease, had developed into a Central Hospital Authority for providing
such accommodation for persons in all classes of the community
in need of isolation, and the Ambulance Authority for
all London—these new powers having been conferred by the
Poor Law Acts of 1879 and 1889, to the provisions of which,
as well as to the action of the Managers in anticipation of
legislation, I have made reference in previous reports. It was
interesting to note, in that narrative, the judicious boldness
displayed by the Managers, from time to time, in doing what
they deemed to be for the public good; so that it may be truly
said that, in almost every instance, legislation followed in the
steps of their practice, which often, however, had the advantage
of the moral support afforded by the tacit approval of the
Local Government Board. It has now come to pass that
persons in any rank of society suffering from scarlet fever, smallpox,
diphtheria, or "fever" may be admitted to the Managers'
Hospitals upon the application of any duly qualified medical
man : practically without payment, on the sole condition that a
medical certificate be handed to the nurse in charge of the
Ambulance, which is sent immediately to remove the patient,
without charge, upon receipt of an application at the offices of
the Board, or at an Ambulance Station, as the case may be.