[709] Mr. Hervey's Report, in Thirty-second Annual Report, 1902-3, p. 69. The total cost of Poor Law medical relief in 1904-5 was £518,994 indoor (to which might be added £640,833 for what are now called the "public health purposes" of the greatest of all Poor Law authorities, the Metropolitan Asylums Board); and £268,537 outdoor (Thirty-fifth Annual Report, 1905-6, pp. 251, 589, 590). This aggregate total of £787,531 (excluding the fever hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board) omits the maintenance of the sick themselves, but includes, however, some items not previously included. For comparative purposes we must take the figure for 1903-4 (£423,554), which includes only doctors' salaries and drugs. This may be compared with the corresponding figure for 1881 of £310,456; for 1871, of £290,249; and for 1840 of £151,781 (Twenty-second Annual Report of the Poor Law Board, 1869-70, p. 227; Eleventh Annual Report of the Local Government Board, 1881-2, p. 237).
[710] Sec. 131 of Public Health Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55).
[711] Sec. 133 of ibid. This had been already included in the Sanitary Act of 1868 (31 & 32 Vic. c. 115, sec. 10).
[712] Circular of 17th August and 12th November 1872, in Second Annual Report, 1872-3, pp. 19-20, 41-52.
[713] See, e.g. the letters of Mr. Hedley, in September 1872, in MS. archives of Newcastle Board of Guardians.
[714] Mr. Bagenal's Report, in Thirty-first Annual Report, 1901-2, p. 139.
[715] Mr. Preston-Thomas's Report, in Thirty-fifth Annual Report, 1905-6, pp. 471-2.
[716] It seems to have been entirely as an exception that the Rochdale Guardians fitted up what was practically a lunatic asylum in their workhouse, adequately equipped, staffed, and isolated; and took in a number of Lancashire chronic lunatics (Special Order of 13th April 1893; Twenty-third Annual Report, 1893-4, p. xcii).
[717] Lunacy Act, 1890, 53 Vic. c. 5, sec. 26.
[718] Ibid. sec. 25; cf. Lunacy Act 1889, 52 & 53 Vic. c. 41, sec. 22.