View report page

10
The distribution of the houses in the four Registration Sub-districts was as
follows: In Shoreditch South 15, Hoxton New Town 98, Hoxton Old Town 40,
and Haggerston 64. In three instance) houses were invaded a second time, but in
each instance the second invasion resulted through the re-introduction of infection
derived from the first. The Holborn and Shoreditch Workhouses are not included in
the above figures.
A note may he added with respect to the sanitary condition of the houses in which
small-pox occurred. As the result of the observations made, 167 may be stated to have
been in a satisfactory or fairly satisfactory condition with respect to cleanliness, and in
the remaining 50 the conditions were unsatisfactory in this respect. Moreover, in
several of the unsatisfactory houses, overcrowding was found to exist. The proportion
of small-pox attacks in the satisfactory and fairly satisfactory houses was at the rate of
not quite 1.5 per house, whilst in the case of the unsatisfactory houses, it was slightly
in excess of 2.5 per house. In 115 of the cleanly houses only one case occurred in
each, that is, there were no secondary cases ; in 35 two cases occurred, in 10 three, in
3 four, in 3 five, and in 1 six cases occurred. In the dirty houses single cases
occurred in 25, two cases each in 7 instances, three cases in 4, four cases in 3, five
cases in 5, six in 3, seven in 2, and in one instance eight cases occurred in the same
house. In the great majority of houses in which more than one occurred, there were
secondary cases. In eleven instances the primary cases were more than one. In
eight of these the houses were in a cleanly condition and in the remainder they were
dirty. Secondary cases occurred in 50 per cent. of the dirty houses invaded as compared
with 30 per cent. of the cleanly houses.
The streets which suffered most severely were Britannia Street, in which 10
houses were invaded, Chatham Avenue, where nine dwellings were infected, Westmoreland
Place, Haberdasher Street, Underwood Street and Underwood Place and
Wellington Place, situate in the New Town Registration Sub-district, and Wilmer
Gardens situate in Haggerston. Wellington Place, which contains six six-roomed
houses, became for a time a terrible nest of infection. In four of the six houses 21
cases occurred with four deaths. When the disease broke out the houses in Wellington
Place were over-crowded, and many of the rooms were dirty. It is hardly necessary
to state that these are conditions which are highly favourable to the spread of infection
of a disease like small-pox. It may be mentioned that although situate in the neighbourhood
of Nile Street, and within an area in which there was much infection, the
dwellings in Provost and Britannia Streets belonging to the Borough Council remained
during the outbreak free from infection.
And now to direct attention to the results of the investigations made in respect to
the cases themselves. In Table IX. (see Appendix) is contained a list of the cases,
showing the ages and sexes of the patients, the dates of the beginning of illness, the
observation of the rash and the removal of the patient3 to hospital, the occupations of
the patients, the state as to vaccination, the probable source of infeotion, the sanitary