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2208 additional beds should be provided, and states that such
provision will be in accord with the now generally accepted
proportion of one bed for every 1000 of the population. I am
afraid, as I have said elsewhere—basing myself on the
increasing appreciation in which the hospitals are held, and
on the customary results of notification—that this estimate
will be found to err by defect. Interesting references are
made to small-pox, a subject already fully dealt with at
page 24 of this report.

It is stated that the 2,019* patients suffering from diphtheria,
or from diphtheritic membranous croup, exceeded by
707 the number admitted in 1891, and that the Managers
are considering such enlargement, improvement and distribution
of accommodation for diphtheria, as past experience and
the probable necessities of the future demand; having regard
to the fact that the Metropolis has during the past decade,
suffered from a progressive increase in the rate of mortality
from this disease; contemporaneously, I may add, with a
steady decline in the death-rates from scarlet fever and
typhoid fever.
* Apparently 2,349 patients were admitted certified to be suffering from diphtheria.
Error in diagnosis would thus appear to have occurred in 330 cases.