§ MR. GIBB (St. Pancras, E.)asked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether his attention has been called to a Report by Mr. Shirley F. Murphy, late medical officer of health for St. Pancras, from which it appears that one effect of the treatment of small pox in hospitals at Hampstead and Highgate during recent epidemics was to spread the disease, and thus endanger the health of that part of the Metropolis; and, whether, having regard to the fact that those hospitals are in the main roads to places of great public resort, such as Hampstead Heath and Highgate Woods, he is prepared to take any steps to prevent the use of those hospitals for small pox in the event of another epidemic?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Mr. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN) (Birmingham, W.)The Highgate Hospital is an institution supported by voluntary contributions, in 636 connection with which my Board have no jurisdiction. As regards the hospital at Hampstead, which is under the management of the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District, it has been the subject of an inquiry by a Select Committee and of expensive litigation. Since the legal proceedings terminated the Managers have secured an additional area of land in connection with the site. The hospital has not, in fact, been used for any small-pox patients since July of last year; and if in the event of any epidemic it should be necessary again to use it for small-pox patients it would only be for a very limited number, and in the cases only of patients who, from the acute nature of the disease, could not be removed to any hospital at a distance. The Report of Dr. Murphy has not yet been officially considered by the Managers, and, consequently, no steps have yet been taken to test the conclusions at which he has arrived.