View report page

34
swing bridge, the Connaught Road swing bridge, and the Silvertown railway crossing. The Tidal Basin
crossing is situate in one of the poorest, busiest, and most crowded parts of the Borough, while there is
frequently a stationary crowd at all the other places mentioned, and it will consequently not be denied that
an ambulance with one or two small-pox patients would be a very undesirable addition to the localities
mentioned, to say nothing of positive menace to the health of the population.
(3.) Complete isolation from crowded districts. What is complete isolation from a practical point
of view ? It is easy to take an alarmist's view, and in the matter of infectious disease there is a great
tendency on the part of the public to do this. Since the issue of Dr. Power's Report to the Local Government
Board on the Fulham Hospital in 1881, and Dr. Barry's Report on the Sheffield Small-pox Epidemic
of 1888, many persons have been inclined to credit small-pox with an even greater virulence than it has; but
I would remind the Council that, although these reports show definitely that a small-pox hospital situated
in a crowded district is a grave danger to the population immediately surrounding the hospital, the
investigations referred to therein were limited to zones around the respective hospitals of varying length,
showing that the incidence of attack varied inversely with the distance from the hospital. Indeed, this
diminished danger with increased distance from hospital, is apparently sufficiently uniform to suggest to the
thoughtful reader conclusions of practical utility. For a thorough knowledge of this point the reports
themselves must be read, but I append below two extracts of tables from the reports which will serve to
illustrate the argument. Dr. Power, in his investigation of the Fulham Hospital, took four circles with the
hospital as a centre, the radius of these circles being respectively ¼ mile, ½ mile, ¾ mile, and 1 mile.
An examination of columns 10, 11, 12 and 13 of the table below, extracted from his report, shows
diminished incidence of attack before mentioned.

Again, Dr. Barry, in his investigation of the Sheffield epidemic, 1888, took four circles with the
hospital as a centre, the radius of the circles being respectively 1,000 feet, 2,000 feet, 3,000 feet, and