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It will be noticed in the tables given above, that the incidence of attack upon the hospital area was
most extreme during the third quarter of 1893, and also that with the commencement of 1894 the disease,
which up to this time had played havoc in Plaistow, and to a lesser extent in Canning Town, leaving
Stratford and Forest Gate comparatively free, became disseminated much more evenly throughout the
Borough. In this connection there are some interesting facts which, to some extent, may throw light on
the peculiarities of incidence. Down to the end of May our hospital could only accommodate fifty patients.
At this period the Mayor, Mr. Alderman Geo. Kidd, took prompt action to increase the accommodation
which was rapidly becoming exhausted, and for that purpose he, with the Town Clerk, arranged to rent
four additional cottages situated beside and at a right angle to" the existing hospital, together with a
neighbouring plot of ground on which were speedily erected two temporary iron wards, which, together
with the added cottages raised the accommodation to ninety-five beds. It cannot but suggest itself as highly
probable that this increased accommodation, though absolutely necessary and very advantageous to the
rest of the Borough, assisted in swelling the number of Plaistow cases. With regard to the second point
mentioned, it will be within the recollection of the Council that towards the close of the year the hospital
became the centre of a considerable public scandal arising chiefly through the statements of a patient,
whose complaints had been previously investigated by the Council without finding confirmatory evidence,
and whose conduct in hospital appeared to have been far from regular. In spite of this investigation, a
public meeting was held in Plaistow—not to complain of the hospital being situated there, but of the general