Mr. J. Netten Radcliffe on the proposed site of a cholera hospital in Liverpool.

  • John Netten Radcliffe
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. J. Netten Radcliffe on the proposed site of a cholera hospital in Liverpool. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/10
    Mr. J. Netten Radcliffe on the Proposed Site of a Cholera Hospital in Liverpool. THIS Report refers to an inquiry directed to be made in consequence (1) of a Memorial addressed to the President of the Local Government Board by certain ratepayers of Liverpool as to the site selected by the Health Committee of that Borough for the erection of a cholera hospital; and (2) of a request, arising out of this Memorial,) from the Health Committee of the Council of the Borough for an inspection of the site referred to by one of the Inspectors of the Board. The Memorialists (all of whom, the Memorial states, were “residents in the locality fixed upon by the Health Committee for the erection of a cholera hospital ”) alleged that the site selected had been for many years a pestilential swamp, and that it was thus described by eye-witnesses.* They also stated that “ whilst fully alive to the importance of preparing for the reception of cholera,” and desirous “to see a proper hospital erected,” they considered “that the place chosen was altogether unsuitable and could never be made suitable.” Further, they expressed the belief “that a cholera hospital on this site would be dangerous to human life.” In the letter from the Health Committee of the Council of the Borough preferring the request for an inspection of the site, it was stated that the Health Committee had that day (September 28) “ inspected the land, and had, therefore, owing to the recent heavy rainfall, seen it under the most unfavourable circumstances, and they fully concurred in the opinion of their Medical Officer of Llealth and Acting Engineer that the site is most suitable, and that one affording equal advantages cannot be obtained in the Borough.” I visited Liverpool on the 3rd October, and in the course of that day and the day following I inspected the site selected for the cholera hospital three times; once in company with the Chairman of the Health Committee (Dr. Taylor), the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. Trench), and an Assistant Surveyor in the Borough (Mr. Coogan); a second time with Mr. Coogan; and a third time in compay with several of the Memorialists and others interested in the subject.f During the inspection vyith the Memorialists the objections which they entertained to the con¬ templated site were stated in detail ; and at the close of the inspection 1 visited with them a plot of ground in Sandhill Lane, which they considered to be better fitted for the site of the hospital to be erected. Before stating the results of my inspections and the conclusions at which I have arrived, it is requisite to give a brief account of the circumstances which have rendered it necessary that the Health Committee of the Borough Council of Liver¬ pool should either erect now, or be prepared to erect, or to provide in some other way, at the briefest notice, a place for the reception of cholera patients. The Order of Council of the 29th July last, as to cholera, requires that the Nuisance Authority of a port (in the case of Liverpool the Borough Council) shall, in the event of a case of cholera being brought by a ship into its district, remove the case from shipboard to a hospital or place to be designated for its reception. On the 31st July I visited Liverpool in accordance with instructions from the Lords of Her Majesty’s Privy Council, to confer with the Town Clerk and the Medical Officer of Health, on the measures to be adopted for carrying out the requirements of the Extracts from several local journals descriptive of the place at the time when the Memorial was written were appended to the Memorial. t The gentlemen present at the commencement of the inspection here referred to were the Rev. Messrs. Wat- *nough and Ross, of St. Augustine s Roman Catholic Church ; Messrs. Fairhurst, McArdle, and Jno. Yates, .members of the Borough Council; and Colonel Bidwell. [429J B
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3