§ MR. BAYLEY (Derbyshire, Chesterfield)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he has supplied a copy of the recent report of Dr. Reece, one of the medical inspectors of the Local Government Board, on the Liverpool Smallpox Hospitals to the local authority of that city; and 1380 whether, in view of Dr. Reece's conclusion that the influence of the hospitals has been responsible in material degree for the sustained prevalence of smallpox in Liverpool in 1902–3, he has made any representations to the local authority as to the desirability of discontinuing the use for smallpox purposes of the two hospitals situated within the city, viz., the Priory Road and Parkhill hospitals, which are especially condemned by Dr. Reece, and of making such other arrangements for the treatment of smallpox cases as will be less likely to be a source of danger to the inhabitants than those which now exist.
(Answered by Mr. Gerald Balfour.) The Local Government Board sent copies of Dr. Reece's report to the Town Council of Liverpool, but they did not deem it necessary, in connection with it, to make any special representations to the council of the kind suggested in the Question. The Board have issued a Memorandum containing their views as to the liability of smallpox hospitals to disseminate the disease, and as to the desirability of their being placed outside towns as far distant from any populated neighbourhood as considerations of accessibility permit. The Board sent copies of this Memorandum in 1902 to the Town Council of Liverpool, amongst other local authorities, and in the circular which accompanied it they expressly stated that smallpox hospitals should be placed in sparsely populated situations.