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16
placed nearer than 90 feet at least from an inhabited
dwelling or a public footpath. I attribute the great mortality
from this disease in the neighbourhood, as may be
supposed from the report of the View Committee, with which
I entirely agree, to the stoppage of the ambulances outside
the hospital grounds; to allowing children to crowd round
them whilst waiting; to the admission of tradespeople into
the grounds and corridors, and of visitors to the sick wards;
to the insufficient height of the wall surrounding the
building; to the nearness of the laundry to the footpath;
and the contiguity of the houses in Brooksbys Walk and the
Grove. Most of these could be avoided, but it is impossible
to shut patients up in a hospital and prevent near relations
visiting them when in danger, without much diminishing
the utility of these hospitals. I believe there is some danger
to the neighbourhood from all hospitals for small pox, to
which a large number of patients are admitted, but I think
that if not more than from 130 to 150 patients, convalescent
and acute cases being counted, be treated in one hospital,
and not more than 25 patients be allowed to an acre, the
risk would be reduced to a minimum, especially if there
be two entrances to the hospital, so as to divide the
traffic, and if every other precaution be taken to prevent
the spread of the disease. In the present state of the
population of London as regards vaccination, I do not think
that these hospitals can be dispensed with, but every precaution
should be taken to minimise the danger to the
residents of the district in which the hospital is placed. I
believe it would be convenient, as well as satisfactory to the
inhabitants of London generally, if a hospital were provided
for each Metropolitan Borough, and if possible, within its
own limits, so that each should bear its own burthen and
not thrust it on other people.
Another point of some importance in connection with
these hospitals, is the question whether or not, Small Pox
and Fever Hospitals should be established within the same