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It is plain therefore that a Medical Officer of Health
has no power to order the removal of a patient to an
Isolation Hospital, but he may, under that section,
if he thinks it necessary, apply to a Justice for an
order. The necessity of making such an application
has not arisen, and consequently no patient has been
compelled to enter the hospital.
Small Pox.—The first case occurred in February.
The patient was a lad whose parents were
extremely anxious with regard to him, and asked
permission for his grandmother to accompany him,
offering to pay 10s. a week for the permission. The
grandmother herself was taken in a few days with
the disease, and two of the subordinate staff, although
vaccinated. One of the staff was first taken ill with
scarlet fever and admitted into the scarlet fever
ward, within two days she shewed symptoms of small
pox and had to be removed to a small pox ward;
the scarlet fever was then masked by the other
disease, till in due time she peeled in true scarlet
fever fashion, and ultimately made a good recovery.
I vaccinated all the children in the ward, except the
very young ones who had good marks of vaccination,
and none of the patients contracted the disease. By
removing the first patient to the hospital the disease
did not spread in that neighbourhood, but another
case was reported from a different part of the Parish
at the end of March, he also was removed to hospital,
and there were no more cases till December. A man
was notified on a Sunday morning as suffering from