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160
passed before the establishment of the Asylums Board) contemplated
provision should be made by the Sanitary Authorities.
It must, moreover, be borne in mind that if a person
dependent upon his daily labour for a livelihood is attacked
with serious illness, he practically becomes, in many instances,
unable to obtain for himself the treatment which he requires,
and his removal to hospital is therefore justifiable on more
than sanitary grounds.
The practice, however, of limiting admission to the Board's
Hospitals to orders signed by Relieving Officers is open to
the objection of associating what is frequently a purely
sanitary precaution with the machinery employed in the administration
of the Poor Law. For this reason, as well as on
grounds of economy and protection of the public health, apart
from consideration of poverty on the part of the sufferer,
the Vestry have for many years held the opinion that the
hospitals of the Asylums Board should be open to the reception
of all cases of infectious disease, without regard to the
status of the sufferer, which cannot be properly isolated and
treated at home.
It was, therefore, with some degree of satisfaction that
the Vestry learned in November last that the Metropolitan
Asylums Board contemplated seeking power from the Local
Government Board, under the Poor Law Act, 1879, to admit
patients to their hospitals by an admission order, signed by
the Medical Officers of Health, as well as by the orders of
Relieving Officers. The Vestry expressed their approval of
this course being adopted, and asked the Asylums Board to
proceed in the matter.
CHOLERA.
In view of a threatened visitation of cholera, the Local
Government Board issued a memorandum to the Local