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the 3000 cases, those in the earlier stages, probably about half,
should be provided tor in the near neighbourhood of London;
the other half—the convalescents—in two or three country hospitals."
The recommendation of the Commission that the Town
hospitals should " become in the main fever hospitals" has
been carried into effect. These hospitals, it was thought, would,
" with the aid of another hospital, which appears to be indispensable
for the East of London, fully accommodate all the cases
requiring London treatment." With a view to give effect to the
recommendation of the Committee, the Managers intended to
provide another hospital for East London; but the fever cases
under treatment at any one time between 1882 and May, 1887,
never having approached 1000, the intention was abandoned, and
a site having been obtained at Winchmore Hill, nine miles northeast
of Charing Cross, the Northern Hospital with present
accommodation for 480 convalescent patients was erected.
The recommendation of the Commission, however, was
justified by the experience of 1887, when the requirements of
an epidemic of scarlet fever obliged the Managers to re-open the
hospitals that had been closed, and having exhausted the accommodation
at the Town hospitals, compelled them to hire the
Plaistow Hospital at West Ham, and to open the Northern Convalescent
Hospital at Winchmore Hill: it also necessitated the
erection of temporary huts at the Eastern, the South-eastern,
and the South-western Hospitals, and at the Northern Hospital,
where at one time upwards of 700 patients were accommodated.
In all, some 2700 beds were provided by the Managers, the maximum
number of patients at any one time being 2611. "What happened
in 1887 may happen again, for the very satisfactory reason
that the Managers' Hospitals have attained a popularity certain
to lead to increased use of them in the future by people in need
of isolation ; the fact being that the strain in 1887 was due in no
slight degree to the larger proportion of the sick removed to
hospital as compared with previous years. Evidence of this fact
is furnished, as regards our own Parish, by the figures set out in