§ MR. HOLMSasked the President of the Poor Law Board, If he will state the number of cases of small pox reported among the pauper population of the metropolis, and the extent of the accommodation provided for them, or in immediate preparation?
§ MR. GOSCHEN, in reply, said, the last Returns showed that the total number of these small-pox cases under treatment was 1,228. The accommodation for them consisted of 520 beds in the metropolitan hospitals, and the Boards of Guardians had accommodation for some 300 more, making a total of 820 beds. There were, therefore, 400 beds short that day; but to-morrow 70 more would be provided; and during the next fortnight about 500 more. In the whole, the beds provided would then exceed the number of cases at present known. Some of the accommodation furnished by the Guardians was, however, of an insufficient and temporary character, and it might be requisite to have 200 or 300 additional beds. Of the 400 cases un-provided for the majority were at Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, and Whitechapel. A report had gone abroad that at Shoreditch there were 420 cases unprovided for; but that number was made up by an erroneous calculation. The real number 323 of cases unprovided for at Shoreditch was about 150—certainly far too many.