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speedily and satisfactorily. Sanitary Authorities are not
likely to view with approval proposals like the foregoing,
which, if carried into effect, would, by weakening their interest,
and diminishing their influence, in relation to matters affecting
the public health, reduce them to practical insignificance. No
action, however, was taken in the matter as the circumstances
did not appear to warrant the Managers applying to the
Local Government Board to obtain a special enactment from
the Legislature. But it is anticipated that the Managers will
embrace any favourable opportunity, of the introduction of
any Bill for conferring on other Authorities enlarged powers
of this nature, to obtain the insertion of similar clauses on
their own behalf.
The proper work of the Board is summarised in three
reports, issued annually,by the Chairman (Sir E. H.Galsworthy),
the Statistical Committee, and the Ambulance Committee.
As usual, I submit the substance of these interesting and
important documents.
THE CHAIRMAN'S REPORT.
This report opens with a reference to the pressure put
upon the Managers' resources by the scarlet fever epidemic,
which necessitated the provision of accommodation much in
excess of that which had been authoritatively indicated to the
Board as the probable maximum accommodation it would
be necessary for them to provide. The patients suffering
from the disease, admitted to the hospitals, numbered 13,093,*
exceeding by 6,556 the largest number admitted during any
* In the Table at page 37, the admissions are stated to have been 13,781, this
total being ascertained from the figures supplied by the Board to the RegistrarGeneral,
and published in his Weekly Returns. The Chairman's figures, presumably,
are corrected for errors in diagnosis, and probably represent the true
number of scarlet fever cases admitted. They were not available until after the
portion of this report dealing with the epidemic had been printed, and they differ
somewhat from the figures contained in the Table at page 114, which is compiled
from the Board's Quarterly Returns.