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13
Considering the extent to which small-pox infection was distributed over the Metropolis
this was what was only to be expected. The sudden outburst of the disease in the
neighbourhood of Nile Street during the last week of January, however, points to some
very potent source of infection within the Borough itself, and in all probability in Nile
Street. There was some indefinite information as to a stranger having been observed
selling, in Nile Street, with an eruption out on his face, but no reliable information
could be obtained in verification of this. It is not an uncommon thing for a person
suffering from small-pox to go about and mix with other persons for several days
before the nature of the malady is recognized. If a person so suffering had been in a
crowded busy market street like Nile Street for four or five days carrying on his trade,
it is highly probable a large amount of infection would have been disseminated. The
source of infection unfortunately remains a matter of conjecture. However, the
infection may have been introduced the almost simultaneous development of small-pox
in such a large number of different houses in the same neighbourhood, rendered that
neighbourhood highly charged with infection and a serious menace to the Borough
generally. As was only to be expected, notwithstanding all efforts made to stamp it
out, the infection was carried to other parts of Shoreditch, though fortunately not to the
extent it was feared it would have been. The original cases in houses in the Nile
Street neighbourhood, that is to say, the cases which occurred during the last few days of
January and the first few days of February, were 47 in number. The cases in the
neighbourhood of Nile Street which were secondary to these numbered 104, and
92 of them were clearly traceable to infection from the original cases. Some 38 cases
were traceable to infectious sources outside the Borough; these resulted in some 27
secondary cases, most of which occurred in the Holborn Workhouse. In 111 cases
nothing definite was ascertained as to the source of infection, but it is very probable
that in many of these, infection was derived from the original cases in the neighbourhood
of Nile Street; these cases resulted in some 76 secondary cases. The foregoing
figures are given as been fairly approximate and include the cases in the Shoreditch
Workhouse and Infirmary and the Holborn Union Workhouse. The large proportion
of cases in which no definite information was obtained as to the source of infection is
to a considerable extent due to the patients having been removed to hospital before the
necessary enquires could be made, the patients' friends being unable to supply the
information.
Amongst those who contracted the disease outside the Borough were four persons
who were employed in connection with the erection of small-pox hospitals in the
neighbourhood of Dartford. They in all probability became infected at the place where
they were employed. In two other cases there is very little doubt that the patients
were infected whilst attending the funerals of relatives dead from small-pox. One of
the temporary officers employed in disinfecting had a mild attack of the disease. He
gave it to his wife who unfortunately died.
One instance occurred in which there are grounds for believing that a patient
returning from the small-pox hospital was the means of introducing infection a second
time into the house in which he resided. On March 9th a young man who had been