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Failing these, a member of the patient's family, or other occupant,
may be found willing to undertake the charge.
It would also be necessary, in the event of an outbreak, for your
Committee to secure the services of a medical practitioner to
attend infected persons who are unable to make provision in this
matter for themselves. The efficient ventilation of the premises,
the disinfection, the removal of sanitary defects, and the
arrangements for the immediate removal of the dead, are matters
which would engage the attention of your staff of inspectors.
Isolation at Hospital—It is also necessary to consider the
desirability of making arrangements for the reception of patients
at a place provided especially for their accommodation and
treatment. Isolation can be better effected and treatment more
successfully conducted at a public institution than in the scattered
households of the people. The Metropolitan Asylums Board is
the authority upon which your vestry in the ordinary course would
rely for due provision. But the hands of the managers are full.
The epidemic of Scarlet Fever, which has spread with unusual
rapidity over the Metropolis, is taxing the strength of the Board to
the utmost. All the beds at the Fever Hospitals are occupied.
As the climax of the Scarlet Fever epidemic, if it follow precedent,
will not be reached until the first or second week in October, it is
evident that the managers are not in a position to make any
provision for the reception of Cholera patients.
Enquiries have been made at St. Thomas's Hospital, and also
at the Lambeth Infirmary, with a view of ascertaining what, if any,
facilities would be given for the reception of Cholera cases. The
question is under the consideration of the Governors of the
Hospital and the Board of Guardians. From an unofficial conversation
I have had with the resident medical officer of St.
Thomas's, I learn that accommodation might, if necessary, be
immediately afforded for 30 cases. I also learn that it is the
intention of the Board of Guardians to place at the disposal of the
Sanitary Authority, for the purpose of the reception of Cholera
cases, the workhouse buildings situated in Princes Road. Little