and qualified nurses to attend to the sick paupers, whatever their complaints.[387] We have even in 1867, so far as the sick are concerned, the explicit disavowal by the Central Authority of the very idea of the deterrent workhouse, which had formed so prominent a part of the policy of 1834-1847. Mr. Gathorne Hardy, speaking as President of the Poor Law Board, said "there is one thing ... which we must peremptorily insist on, namely, the treatment of the sick in the infirmaries being conducted on an entirely separate system, because the evils complained of have mainly arisen from the workhouse management--which must to a great degree be of a deterrent character--having been applied to the sick, _who are not proper objects for such a system_."[388] [381] _Ibid._ p. x. [382] _Official Circular_, Nos. 14 and 15, N.S., April and May 1848, p. 237. [383] Circular of 1st August 1857, in Tenth Annual Report, 1857, p. 37. The Central Authority did not, prior to 1867, face the responsibility of deciding to require boards of guardians to provide hospital accommodation even for infectious diseases. In 1863, indeed, under fear of small-pox, it got so far as to transmit to Metropolitan boards of guardians an alarmist letter by Dr. Buchanan, and to permit the taking of temporary premises for "the destitute poor attacked by contagious or infectious disease" (Circular of 30th April 1863, in Fifteenth Annual Report, 1862-3, pp. 37-9). We believe that practically nothing was done upon this. In 1866, when cholera was imminent, another Circular was sent which, significantly enough, makes no mention of temporary hospitals, but points to an increase of the outdoor medical relief, disinfectants, sustenance and clothing to meet the "great increase of destitution" to be apprehended. "As far as practicable ... the admission of cholera patients into the workhouse should be prevented" (Circular of 27th July 1866, in Nineteenth Annual Report, 1866-7, pp. 39-40). [384] _See_ for all this the Eighteenth Annual Report, 1865-6, pp. 15-16; Nineteenth Annual Report, 1866-7, pp. 15-18, 39; Twentieth Annual Report, 1867-8, pp. 25-28; Report of Dr. E. Smith on Metropolitan Workhouse Infirmaries and Sick Wards, in House of Commons, No. 372 of 1866; _The Condition of the Sick in London Workhouse Infirmaries_ (Association for the Improvement of the London Workhouse Infirmaries, 1867); _Opinions of the Press upon the Conditions of the Sick Poor in London Workhouses_ (_ibid._ 1867); _The Management of the Infirmaries of the Strand Union, the Rotherhithe and the Paddington Workhouses_ (1867?). [385] The provincial newspapers took up the work that the _Lancet_ had begun. On 31st January 1865, a long report appeared in the _Manchester Examiner_ revealing serious deficiencies in the Manchester Workhouse sick wards.