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63
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 five years beds have been placed at the disposal of
registered practitioners, and the resident medical officers of
general hospitals, as well as sanitary officials, whose applications
for the admission of patients, when made in compliance
with the reasonable requirements of the Board's regulations,
are 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.
THE CHAIRMAN'S ANNUAL REPORT.
The report opens with the satisfactory statement that the operations
of the Board during the past twelve months, " have not been of
exceptional importance." Advantage has been taken by the Managers
of this period of "comparative inactivity" and "respite from new
work, and from additional responsibility, to concentrate their at'.ention
upon the reform and improvement of many matters of administrative
detail."
Small-pox.—Reference is made to the practical immunity
from Small-pox, which for the sixth consecutive year London has
enjoyed. Of 64 cases removed to hospital in 1891, 43 occurred
between the 13th April and the 14th May. Note is taken that there are
indications pointing to a revisitation of this disease, and satisfaction
is expressed that, should it again assume epidemic proportions, the
Managers will, " by means of their efficient River Ambulance Service,
and the accommodation which they possess in the Hospital Ships at
Long Reach, and in the Convalescent Hospital at Darenth, be far