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The medical officer of health of Poplar and Bromley reports, " During the last quarter of the year
1893 a very serious epidemic threatened the poor and densely populated region surrounding Hawgoodstreet.
The disease was no doubt spread by the utter carelessness and disregard of the inhabitants, who>
visited one another when there was sickness in the house. This visiting did not apply only to Hawgoodstreet
and its surroundings, but to other parts of Bromley and Poplar, for in tracing out the origin of
the cases it was generally found to be brought about in this manner."
The medical officer of health of Mile-end Old-town reports "On April 1st a case occurred at
Freeman's-cottages, Old Church-road, and as this patient worked at Bright and May's sweetmeat
manufactory in the same locality, I made a careful enquiry from all the employees as to whether there
was any case of sickness in their homes, and ascertained that the daughter of the landlady of one of
them was not well, but nothing more definite than this. I visited the house and found she was, and had
been treated for three weeks by a local doctor for chicken-pox, but there 13 not the slightest doubt that
it was a case of small-pox from the first. I traced no less than 16 cases from this source of infection,
all of which occurred in Old Church-road and Heath-street, and which in my opinion owe their origin
to this mistaken diagnosis."
Mr. Taylor and the sanitary inspectors made a house to house inspection in the neighbourhood,
and found a young woman suffering from small-pox occupying the same bedroom with two sisters
employed in the City. The sufferer was not receiving medical attendance, and her mother at first denied
that there was any case of sickness in the house. The patient was removed to hospital and the house
disinfected.
Referring to 35 cases of small-pox under 12 years of age, Mr. Taylor found 20 were unvaccinated,
10 were vaccinated, and in the case of 5 there was some doubt as to the vaccination.
The medical officer of health of Kensington gives account of an outbreak of small-pox in the
north-east part of that district, which came to his knowledge in the latter days of October, but " which
had been smouldering for a month before the first notification was received." The first case was a child,
Maud K., living in the Portobello-road, who fell ill on or about the 22nd of September, but who was not
removed to hospital till the 23rd October. The second was her father, who fell ill on or about the 12th
October, and who died in his house on the 23rd October. The father was a purveyor of bread and
milk, &c., and his business led to many persons calling at his shop during the time he and his daughter
were ill. Indeed Dr. Dudfield tells of visits paid to the daughter by her young friends of both sexes,
from adjoining houses during her illness, and of her taking part in the business of the shop after 8th
October, although her face was covered with scabs. From this centre the disease spread, and Dr. Dudfield
gives account of 65 persons attacked in Kensington, this child's illness probably being directly or
indirectly responsible for the infection of the remaining 64. Dr. Dudfield thus writes concerning the
state as to vaccination of this father and daughter. " The unfortunate man had been an ardent opponent
of vaccination; but Mr. Shattock, the Vaccination Officer, informed me that, in March, 1882, he had
received a medical certificate of the successful vaccination of Maud, signed by a medical man, now
deceased, whose certificates he always viewed with more or less suspicion. The girl's arm, however,
exhibited no marks, and her mother subsequently admitted that the vaccination had not " taken." Her
father had often boasted that he was unvaccinated : whether he was so appears to be doubtful; but humanly
speaking his fatal illness was the result of his child's unprotected state. The remaining children of the
family had been successfully vaccinated by the Public Vaccinator, and notwithstanding the intensity of
the infection to which for a whole month they had been exposed, one and all escaped.'
The late medical officer of health of Paddington gives no details as to the cases in that district,
but Dr. Dudfield was able to satisfy himself that Maud K. contracted her illness in the house of her
uncle in Barnsdale-road, Paddington. In this house were certain children who appear to have suffered:
from small-pox, the first of whom fell ill about the middle of August. The source of infection was not
known. Other persons in this house were attacked, among them the relatives of Maud K.
The medical officer of health of Chelsea refers to ten cases in November and one in December,,
related to the North Kensington outbreak.