View report page

175
That a magistrate will be slow to grant an order we
have experienced on several occasions. And even
if the order be obtained it by no means follows that
the patient shall be removed. The medical man in
attendance may certify (most likely correctly, at any
rate correctly according to his judgment) that the
patient is too ill to be removed; or the patient himself
may still decline to go, and may remain immovable
except by force, which in such a case can
scarcely be applied. In one instance, a few years
ago, we obtained a magisterial order for the removal
of a man suffering from small-pox; he refused to
submit, and as his removal would have involved a
prolonged struggle, and probably a free fight between
a man covered with pocks and his friends on
one side, and two or three Vestry officials and
policemen on the other, he had his way. Again,
some few years ago, we had a localised outbreak of
typhus in Camberwell, which, owing mainly to the
kinds of difficulty just considered, we did not succeed
in arresting until after the lapse of several weeks.
Here we had to do with medical men who co-operated
loyally with us; but (and this is the reason why I
quote the case) the disease in two or three instances
was carried to localities a quarter or half a mile away,
and came under the treatment of other practitioners.