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the site - a small unoccupied hill of 29 acres jutting out into Stangate Creek — called Chetney
Hill. The Government, however, reused the money. Instead in 1755 they provided 5 old men-of-war
ships to act as floating lazarets. The merchants were annoyed and got the support of the Prime
Minister, William Pitt who himself came from a merchant family. The seven years war 1756-63
intervened but in 1764 plans of a lazaret were approved and money voted to buy the land, but it
was not taken over till 1772. However the work did not start tor another 30 years because since
about 1740 plague had nearly disappeared from Europe, More American and less Egyptian cotton was
being imported and the old men-of-war were proving adequate and cheap.
In the 1790*s things changed. Napoleon's Italian campaign of 1796-97 closed all lazarets to
English shipping except Malta and Yellow fever broke out in Philadelphia and New York and
cotton cargoes for England now got "foul" Bills of Health.
In 1800 Parliament agreed to a proper lazaret and provided £65,000. Work started in 1801
and the main building was more or less completed in 1806 at a cost then of £100,000., but was
never in full use because it was too expensive as compared to disused men-of-war, so it was
demolished and the materials sold
Denton Hospital.
The Second Hospital I will mention is Denton Hospital at Gravesend which was provided by
the Corporation of London in 1883 as an Infectious Diseases Isolation Hospital to deal withcases
found on ships entering the Port. It was of course taken over by the Minister of Health in 1948 but
the Medical Officers of the Port Health Department of the Corporation who board incoming vessels
in connection with the prevention of the importation of infectious disease still act as the Medical
Officers of this Hospital and it is still solely used for its original purpose.
Before leaving the subject of Hospitals I would mention that Dr. Monckton Copeman undertook
an interesting investigation into an epidemic skin disease that occurred at Bethnal Green Infirmary
and at the City of London Infirmary at Bow in 1893- Dr. Copeman records his indebtedness to the
Assistant Medical Officer of the City of London Infirmary for notes of cases which he had under
treatment. In this connection it is interesting to note that circumstances have not changed over
much with regard to medical records,for Monckton Copeman politely remarks "although these notes
are not i n • -a 11 respects as full as could be wished, still as they gave me some detailed account of
the more prominent symptoms which obtained among the patients suffering from this disease, I
think it desirable to place them on record here", which he does in respect of some 9 cases and
makes observations concerning temperature charts of the City of London cases annexed to the
report, in addition to pathological investigation as to the probable cause being staphylococcus alba.
• There are other matters of publichealth interestwhich are worthy of brief mention. Hardly any
greater sanitary gift could have come to the poorer mi 11 ions of the nation than that steady cheapening
of their daily bread which the Corn Importation Act of 1846 secured to them, and in the same
session of Parliament the notable act which enabled Local Authorities to establish public baths
and washhouses was passed. This admirable act, specially in the interests of the labouring
classes, was mainly due to the exertions of an association for Promoting Cleanliness which had
been founded two years previously and which, first, by an instructive trial of Free Baths and
Washhouses in the neighbourhood of London Docks, led the public to see how greatly such establishment
were needed and how readily they could be made self-supporting.
I want to make brief mention of two City Livery Companies.
(I) Society of Apothecaries
The Apothecaries'Hal I in which we are seated is a Livery Hall with a long standing association
with Medicine. It stands on its original site after its destruction in the Great Fire of London,
and its court room, great hall and parlour were rebuilt on much the same lines. When purchased,
the River Bank was not far from the Hall. It would correspond to the centre of Queen Victoria
Street today where the railway bridge crosses it. The neighbourhood of the Hall has of course
been much altered.As well as having geographical proximity to the Thames, the River played quite
a part in the activities of the Apothecaries. At the time when they first assumed their livery and
for nearly 200 years after, the waterway of the Thames provided the most appropriate route by
which pageants such as the installation of the Master or the Lord Mayor's Show proceeded.
It is well to remember the importance attached to the training of the apprentice to recognise
drugs and to practise the complicated methods then used in compounding and dispensing medicines.
Hence the importance of the herborising excursions, undertaken under the auspices of the Society
of Apothecaries. The apprentice during his servitude handled and dispensed drugs in his Master's
shop but attended the herborising excursions and in the physicks garden on the Thames at Chelsea
to study botany. These excursions took place on certain days each year. The apothecary had to
have to wide and intimate knowledge of the simples from which so many of his medicaments were
prepared. To learn to recognise a great variety of plants the apprentice must go 'asimpling'.