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50
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
by refusal to be re-vaccinated, concealment of being in contact, or
unrecognised cases. Six cases occurred in one house, five in
another, four in three houses, three in three houses, and two in
11 houses.
Infection was traced to the following places: —Paris, Smallpox
Ships, St. Pancras, Hammersmith, Battersea, Lambeth, City
of London, Southwark, Westminster, Finsbury, Bermondsey, St.
Thomas's Hospital, and St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Nine of the
cases were directly due to infection at the new Small-pox Hospital
at Gore Farm, four cases were infected from cases contracted
there, and one case was infected by one of the above four ; making
a total of 14.
All the four secondary cases were infected before notification
of the case which caused the infection. In one case, the wife, and
in another case, the wife and daughter, were notified, and on
visiting the house I found that the husband in each case was
suffering from a mild attack, and both were removed to Hospital.
In addition to visiting the majority of the cases of Small-pox
personally, at the beginning of the outbreak especially, I visited in
consultation with the Medical Attendants, a large number of
suspected cases for the purpose of confirming or negativing the
diagnosis of Small-pox. As the majority of medical men practising
in' the Borough had had no opportunity of seeing cases of
Small-pox, it is surprising that more mistakes in diagnosis did not
occur.
Notification of Chicken-pox.
In January, 1902, the London County Council made an
Order under Section 55 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
making Chicken-pox notifiable from February 7th, 1902, and this
was extended to November 7th by a further Order in April, 1902.
During the seven months ending September 7th, 822 cases
were notified, and the following Table shows the total number
notified at all ages, and at certain groups of ages during each
month notification was in force.