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to the South Eastern Fever Hospital. On March 22nd the Medical Superintendent
of the Fever Hospital informed me that the patient was suffering from Typhus
Fever and not Enteric.
On March 22nd, E. C. (mother of F. C.) was removed to the South-Eastern Fever
Hospital from Spencer Street, St. George's, where she had gone to live while the
house in Cornwall Street was being thoroughly disinfected. The Medical
Superintendent notified her also to be suffering from Typhus Fever. She had been
ill since March 19th.
On making enquiries, I found that F. C. was engaged as a rag sorter, but the
rags were clean rags. That is, they were tailor's cuttings, and as such, had never
been used and were quite new.
E. C. was engaged in selling crockeryware on a stall in Watney Street, where
she also sold second-hand clothes.
The house in Cornwall Street is a four-roomed house, the two rooms on the
ground floor were occupied by the mother and daughter, and the two rooms on the
first floor were occupied by a man and wife and a newly-born baby. The premises
were fairly clean and were in no way overcrowded.
On making enquiries, I found that a son of E. C. went to see a doctor on
March 1st. His name, was J. C., and was 39 years of age. The doctor recommended
his removal to the Infirmary, where he was admitted on the same date, and was
supposed to be suffering from "catarrh and influenza." On admission to the
Infirmary his temperature was 102° at 6 p.m. on that day (March 1st). His pulse
was 126, and his respirations were 48. Pneumonia of both bases was diagnosed,
but it was thought that the pneumonia of the right base was more recent than that
on the left. On the following day he was delirious, his urine was acid, sp. gr. 1020,
and contained cloudy albumen. He got worse, delirium became continuous, he had
twitching of the hands, and pneumo¬coccal meningitis. He had rusty sputum,
and his expectoration was exceedingly foul and offensive. On the fourth day he
became comatose and died on March 5th.
J. C. had no permanent address and generally lived when in London in Seamen's
lodging houses or common lodging houses. He was a stevedore and worked latterly
on the S.S. "St. Servan." This boat left London on January 29th for St. Nazaire,
and started her return journey on February 18th, arriving in London on
February 20th. She left London on February 27th for Morocco, and as far as I
can ascertain there had been no other suspicious illness on board. On February 20th
(the day of his arrival in London), J. C. heard that his wife was ill in St. George's
Infirmary, and he went there to see her. He was evidently under the influence
of drink, and his wife hardly spoke to him. This was the only occasion that his
wife saw him for a period of five months before his death. He slept in a common