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A report by Dr. "Wanklyn on cerebro-spinal fever in London during 1909 is appended. (See
Appendix III.)
Anthrax.
On the 6th April, 1909, the Council made an Order requiring the notification of cases of
glanders, anthrax and hydrophobia in man; the Order came into force on the 26th April.
Four persons during the year were certified under this Order to be suffering from anthrax.
The cases of this disease which came under observation during the year were the following :—
1. February—A cats' meat man in Lambeth.
2. March—A lime jobber in Bermondsey, infected from Chinese hides.
3. March—A lime jobber in Bermondsey, infected from Chinese hides.
4. April—A dock labourer in Bow, engaged in unloading jute and wool.
5. May—A labourer in Bethnal Green, engaged in opening and disinfecting bales of Siberian
horsehair.
6. June—A house-keeper in Water-lane, City, who had swept up horsehair and bristles.
7. June—A wharf labourer in Bermondsey, infected from Cape goat-skins.
8. June—A labourer at a tannery in Bermondsey, infected from foreign hides.
9. December—A man employed on a barge in "VVapping. He had been stung by a fly on the barge,
but otherwise the source of infection was unknown as the barge was exclusively used
for carrying waste paper.
Of these cases Nos. 8 and 9 proved fatal.
Glanders.
The following is the history of human glanders in London during 1909 :—
A horse-keeper, (Pi. 41, died on 2nd March in St. Thomas's Hospital. His right knee had been
swollen and there were swellings on the leg, ankle, and forehead. The diagnosis was confirmed by
bacteriological examination. The mallein test was applied to the stud of horses, among which he had
worked, with result that several were found to be affected with glanders.
In April two supposed cases, one in Islington and one admitted to the Eastern Hospital,
Homerton, were notified in error. The latter proved to be a case of erythema multiforme. In September
a case was notified as farcy in Poplar ; this case proved to be one of impetigo contagiosum.
In October a death occurred in Kensington (the case had been notified in July). The man,
a carman, had been in Charing Cross Hospital and the Throat Hospital, Golden-square, suffering with
sore throat. The presence of the bacillus mallei was demonstrated in the throat lesions.
In October there occurred the death of a member of the staff in the inoculation department
of a London hospital. His fatal illness was contracted in 1906 while working in the inoculation department.
The nature of the disease was at first obscure, but was later identified as internal glanders.
Two other cases in which a suspicion of glanders arose occurred during the year, but in neither
case was the diagnosis confirmed.
Meteorology.
The tables published in the Annual Summary of the Registrar-General, deduced from observations
at Greenwich under the superintendence of the Astronomer Royal, show that the mean temperature
of the air in 1909 was 48-9 deg. Fahrenheit, which is 12 degrees below the average of the pieceding
65 years. The rainfall during the year amounted to 25"72 inches, an excess of 1'60 inches on the
average of the preceding 65 years. The temperature and rainfall in each month of the year 1909 are
shown in the following table :—