§ DR. TANNERI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether any definite rules now apply in the selection of sites for hospitals for smallpox, and if any evidence is now available to indicate at. what distance from people aggregated in institutions or living in dwelling houses, hospitals may be established without risk to persons who are susceptible of smallpox infection?
§ MR CHAPLINThe inquiry of the hon. Member raises an interesting and important question on which he is pro-ably more competent to express an opinion than I am; but I am advised by the medical experts of the Local Government Board that no definite evidence is as yet available to show what is the distance at which smallpox hospitals may be established from aggregations of persons without risk to such persons, and, pending the solution of this question, we do not sanction loans for the provision of smallpox hospitals on any site where there would be within a radius of a quarter of a mile, either a hospital, or a workhouse, or any similar establishment, or a population of 150 to 200 persons, or on a site where there would be within a radius of half a mile a 904 population of 500 to 600 persons, whether in one or more institutions or in dwelling-houses.