§ GENERAL BUCKLEYsaid, he wished to ask the President of the Poor Law Board, Whether he is aware that fresh cases of small-pox are brought into the workhouse of St. George's, Hanover Square Parish, and other workhouses in London; and whether some arrangement could not be made to prevent fresh cases of small-pox being brought into the populous part of London?
§ MR. C. P. VILLIERSsaid, that he had not heard of any fresh, cases of small-pox being admitted into St. George's Workhouse, or, indeed, into any of the other metropolitan workhouses; but, on the contrary, he had heard generally that the disease was on the decline throughout the workhouses in London. Some weeks since the Privy Council issued a Circular to all the Metropolitan Unions, urging them to adopt precautionary measures with the view to the extension of accommodation. Since then they had received twenty-five answers from the Unions, stating that the accommodation provided for small-pox patients was fully adequate to the occasion, and more than was required for the purposes of the patients already admitted. It might be satisfactory to his hon. and gallant Friend, as well as the House generally, to hear that a report would be made in a few days from the Union of St. George's, Hanover Square, stating that the Governors and Directors of the poor there, with the assistance of the medical officers, had appropriated a wing of the Workhouse to the reception of small-pox patients. The said wing was capable of accommodating forty persons. The greatest number that had been at any time admitted was thirty. The total number of patients admitted since the outbreak was fifty-eight. There were now only fifteen patients in the house, and the larger number of them were convalescent. Disinfectants, great cleanliness, and other means were being rigidly adopted, with the view to the prevention of the spread of the disease.