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13
point, even though aerial convection may not be
clearly proved. A glance at the map will show that
in the proposed district there are several sites well
removed from dwellings, but easy of access ; some
one of which would doubtless be procurable for the
purpose. There is already a hospital at Tolworth,
just outside the district, that could readily be
extended, should the Rural Sanitary Authority, to
whom it belongs, cease to exist, as the adjoining
property has been offered to the Corporation for the
purpose. In this hospital patients are at present
charged for maintenance, and paupers are not
admitted. These restrictions are most objectionable,
as an infectious person is not removed to hospital for
his own benefit, but for the benefit of his neighbours,
upon whom the burden of payment should fall, and
who are just as likely to contract the disease from a
pauper as from a peer.
In outbreaks of infectious disease the epidemic
is, at first, usually limited to one portion of a district,
so that a small district with a small hospital might
be unable to cope with an outbreak that would
present no difficulty in a grouped district of, say,
50,000 inhabitants. Here if there were 5 districts,
there would be 5 hospitals, each with 10 beds, so
so that if 15 or 20 cases suddenly appeared (not an
impossibility) the small hospital would be unable to
accommodate all; whereas the hospital for the
grouped district with 50 beds would not be put to
any stress. The nursing staff could be more readily
arranged in a larger hospital, as it is necessary to
have separate nurses to attend to each separate
disease. It will be seen that in a hospital for 10
beds, with a matron and two nurses, one severe case
of Scarlet Fever, one of Diphtheria, and one of
Typhoid, would completely paralyse the institution,
as there would be no reliefs available for the night.
There would also be a considerable saving of expense