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93
CLINICAL INSTRUCTION AT THE
HOSPITALS.
The Poor Law Act, 1889, among other provisions, authorised
the Managers, "if they think fit, to allow the Asylums provided
by them for fever, small-pox, and diphtheria, to be used for
the purposes of medical instruction, subject to any rules and
regulations which the Local Government Roard may from time
to time make" (section 4). The Managers immediately
decided to allow their fever hospitals to be so used, and their
regulations framed for giving effect to the plan have been
approved by the Local Government Board. It would be
difficult to overrate the value of this arrangement to medical
students, who have practically no opportunities, at general
hospitals, for becoming acquainted with the character and the
treatment of infectious diseases, which are now almost entirely
excluded from those institutions. The minimum period of
study for students (who are non-resident) is two months, with
a minimum attendance of not less than two days in each week.
Each student who satisfactorily completes the course of study,
receives a certificate to that effect from the Board, after it has
been signed by the Medical Superintendent. The rules do not
at present apply to the Small-pox Hospitals, but provision is
about to be made to render these hospitals available for the
purpose. Opportunities for the study of small-pox at the Ships
have long been on the smallest scale, owing to the freedom of
London from this loathsome disease, which, unhappily, is now
threatening to assume an epidemic form for the first time
since 1884.
STATISTICAL TABLE.
Reference to the work of the Asylums Board in 1891 may
be fitly- concluded by the following Table, showing the number
of cases admitted to the Managers' hospitals from the several
Parishes and Unions which, it will be understood, are not conterminous
with the sanitary districts:—