The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-05 00:00:00

which the necessity of cares demanded. Now these
institutions were partly supported by grants from
the counties, and subscriptions from the chari-
table. There was also a grant to many of those
charities from the Government, but the amount at dis•
posal was not only insufficient, but it was not so advan-
tegeously dispoicd of ns it could be under a well-ma-
naged system. In 1843, a gentleman spent much of his
valuable time in looking into the present state
of the medical charities of Ireland, he meant
the lion. Member for Roscommon. lie could assure
their Lordships, that that Hon. Member would give all
the assistance in his power to any reform which legisla-
tion on the question would bring about. He (the Noble
Lord) was of opinion that a rate should be paid by all
parties who were rateable, for the support of their re-
spective districts. He would have the means of medicel
relief within the reach of every poor man's cabin in Ire-
land, and this would be attended witisthe double advantage
of affording; a speedy recovery in slight and eases, and
of saving the valuable time of the medical men. This
object could be effected by establishing a number of fever
hospitals, and so placing
.them in every poor-law union,
that this should be, as it were, at the door of every
poor man. The jurisdiction of a poor law union
in Ireland, ranges from within ten to twelve miles ;
he believed twelve miles was about the average
radius, and it wculd not be doing too much
to establish a local fever hospital iu each of
these unions. And he would suggest also
that each union in Ireland should hare an infirmary.
Now, with regard to the building of these
in establisheu t, it might be done in many ways. He bad
already alluded to an Irish Act of Parliament,
which ',gave the medical practitioner in each
union workhouse a salary of 1031. a year.
and he would propose
.that the sum of 100,0001 should
be raised partly by public, partly by private subscrip:ion,
for the building of infirmaries, and that their
medical officers should be transferred to the new
establishments. This he thought was the best
mode of placing the medical relief of Ireland
on a safe and sure footing. It only remained for
him to state the manner in which he proposed
that these infirmaries and hospitals should be governed.
At present the local dispensaries were under the control
of the medicalofficers appointed to them by the local autho-
rities. Now he would propose that the parser of governing
the new hospitals and infirmaries should be trans-
, ferred to a board, to be constituted of the largest
rate-payers in the parish in which the institu-
tions . were situated; and that a donation of 201.,
or an annual subscription of a smaller sum, to
the institution should entitle the donor to be elected on
this Board. This Board, conjointly with the Board
of Poor-law Guardians, he would suggest, should have
the power of electing Medical officers as well as of
and auditing the accounts ; and when it wasnecessary that a patient should be admitted into
the infirmary, the board of rate-payers should
decide whether his treatment should be at the expense
of the institution, or of the patient himself,
Having disposed of the principal matter of detail,
he now came to the considerations of the proprity of
establishing a central medical office, for the purpose of
laying down regulations for the guidance of the local
authorities, and. fur the inspection and auditing the
accounts, and confirming the general proceed-
ings of the local boards. An officer of this
sort would have ample information and suffi-
cient means for reporting from time to time
improve the sanatory condition of the country. He
could not conceive a subject of more importance than
that of the appointment of a general board of health in
Ireland, and he would suggest that a central institution
of this sort should be established in Dublin.