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11
not deal with them I would. In some cases the Guardians dealt
with them, and in others they were removed to Hospital, under my
instructions, and the fee paid by your Board.
Now, Gentlemen, all this suggests to me Reform in the Management
of the Hospital accommodation for Infectious Sick, and that
was the opinion of your Board three years ago, when you initiated
the question of such Reform at the Cannon Street Conference,
which ended in the introduction of a short Clause into the Poor
Law Amendment Act, to the effect that—"A Metropolitan Sanitary
Authority might contract with the Metropolitan Asylums Board
for the reception and maintenence in any Hospital, under the
management of such Board, of any person suffering from any
dangerous infectious disorder within the District of such Sanitary
Authorities." Many circumstances have occurred to prevent the
carrying out of this provision, of which I will mention but two.
The first is, so far as regards your District, that you could never
get any estimate from the Metropolitan Asylums Board of the
probable expense, and the second is the trouble experienced by that
Board not in finding sites for the erection of new buildings, should
they be required, but in actually holding their own against
the agitation at Hampstead and elsewhere. This Clause of the
Act has, therefore, become a dead letter, and I must confess that I
see but small prospect of its resuscitation. It, therefore, behoves
the Authorities to deal with this matter without delay, and in
indicating a basis for operations in this direction, I cannot do better
than refer to the words of my Report on the subject, in 1878,