Architecture in relation to hygiene.
- International Congress of Hygiene and Demography
- Date:
- 1892
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Architecture in relation to hygiene. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
124/162 page 124
![In a report which I presented to the Local Government Board some nine years since, on “ The Use and Influence of Hospitals for Infee- “ tions Diseases,” * I stated that out of about 1,510 provincial sanitary authorities in England and Wales in 1879, 296 possessed some means for the isolation of the infectious fevers, other than that intended for poor-law purposes; and I And that, since that date, loans, amounting in all to 448,769/., have been granted to over a hundred sanitary authorities for the provision of isolation hospitals. Some of these loans, it is true, relate to the replacement of former hospitals by more efficient ones, and to the extension of existing ones; but, on the other hand, a munber of isolation hospitals have been erected out of current rates and otherwise than by the aid of loans, and I am probably correct in stating that some adequate means for the isolation of infectious diseases are now possessed by at least 400 urban, rural, and port sanitary authorities; and, it may be added, that there is already evidence that the adoption by a large number of sanitary authorities of the permissive clauses of the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act, 1889—a. measure by means of which early and precise information is secured as to the extent to which infectious diseases prevail in any district—is likely to lead to a substantial increase in the number of English isolation hospitals. Diseases calling for isolation.—The infectious diseases which, in this country, especially call for isolation in hospital are, in the order of their importance, as follows:—Scarlet fever, typhus, small-pox, diphtheria, enteric fever, and cholera; and to these may be added, as being less frequently isolated in hospital, erysipelas, measles, whooping- cough, and puerperal fever. So far, there is no evidence that aggregation of the infectious sick suffering from any of these diseases, except small-pox, such as is likely to he carried out by any ordinary sanitary authority, leads to diffusion of infection to the surrounding community, provided the hospital be properly constructed and admi- nistered, and subject to a zone of some 40 feet being provided between all buildings intended to receive infected persons or things and the boundary wall, or close fence, around the site. Experience has shown that it is otherwise with small-pox ; and it yet remains to be ascertained what are the circumstances under which cases of that disease can lie aggregated for the purposes of sanitary authorities, without risk to the community. Fortunately, owing to the protection afforded by vaccina- tion, small-pox does not, as is commonly supposed, stand foremost amongst the infectious fevers calling for isolation in hospital. As a rule, port sanitary authorities alone make special provision for cholera. The following are some of the principal points to be kept in view in providing for the other dangerous infectious disorders which have been referred to. Extent of provision to be made.—Speaking generally, it has been estimated that the provision of one bed per 1,000 inhabitants, is * Supplement by the Medical Officer to the Tenth Annual Report of the Local Government Board [C. 3290] 1882.—Re-issued 1884.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28045415_0128.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
