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10
information as to the progress made by those inmates of
the Hospital in whose welfare they might be interested.
As to another matter, it is my undoubted duty to again
call the attention of the Hospital Committee to the necessity
for an alteration from the present old-fashioned, out
of date, and unreliable method of disinfection by dry heat
now in vogue there, to that by super-heated steam, which
is held by all scientists to be far preferable and more
trustworthy, both in application and in result. I referred
to this matter in my Report last year, mentioning that
"The present method is that of dry heat obtained by gas,
"and known as Dr. Schollick's. In the light of experience
"that system has been long since condemned as unreliable,
"and superheated steam is now the only process sanc"tioned
by the Metropolitan Asylums Board for use in
"their Hospitals."
It will be also desirable to have some more rational
and less expensive method of collecting and returning
bedding and other articles that it may be desired to send
for disinfection, to that at present in use; the method now
being to fetch the articles in the ambulance, leaving them
to be brought home by any other conveyance the owner
likes to employ. There should be two light closed vans;
one might be painted red and the the other white, for
fetching and returning, to avoid any possibilities of
mistake; and those desiring to make use of them should
be allowed to do so at their own expense for horse hire or
haulage, the present charge of seven shillings being
exorbitant; the more so when the distance, as it often is,
would be well under one mile. In his report the Medical
Officer of the Hospital says:—" It would greatly assist the
"Medical Officer if medical practitioners who send
"patients to the Hospital would send him a short account