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dozens of lives, and the rapid disappearance of the epidermic, was the energetic use
of that wonderful means which Providence has placed at our disposal for the prevention
of smallpox.
The following are the figures on which this conclusion is founded. The new cases
of smallpox in the workhouse practice were: —
In October, eleven. Previously vaccinated six, no death; unvaccinated five, one
death.
In November, twelve new cases. Among the vaccinated five, no death; unvaccinated
seven, two deaths.
In December, the disease being more virulent and localized, thirty-seven cases.
Previously vaccinated, twenty-one, one death (see note; p. 32); unvaccinated, sixteen,
of whom six deaths.
In the earlier half of January, twenty-eight new cases. In the vaccinated,
sixteen, and no death; in the unvaccinated twelve, and five deaths; The
disease increasing, and the proportion of unprotected persons attacked also being
on the rise.
Now the activity of vaccination at the workhouse was at its height, and here is
the result
In the latter half of January there were 19 new cases. Previously vaccinated,
seventeen (not less than in the former half of the month), and no death; unvaccinated
only two, and one death.
In the first half of February the new cases of smallpox among persons previously
vaccinated were fourteen, no death ; among unvaccinated persons two cases*
and no death.
The disease now became every day less prevalent, and by the beginning of March
it had almost lost its epidemic character.
How many scarred faces as well as deaths were saved by these vaccination measures
may be judged of from the fact that of persons previously vaccinated, only
tone in forty had the confluent disease, while the unvaccinated were seamed by the
severest form of smallpox in three cases out of four.
Another consideration, corroborative of the conclusion to which we have been
drawn, as to the persistence of the epidemic influence over our district after the
mortality had fallen, may be derived from examining the death-returns of other
parts of London. The deaths from smallpox in the metropolis were, in January,
142, and in February 151, a rise instead of a decline. In the central districts of
the town, excluding St. Giles, they were 19 in January, and 21 in February—again
a rise. In our own district, as has been said, the deaths that were ten in January
numbered only three in February.
The situation of the epidemic of smallpox is indicated by the numbers accompanying
the letters S. P. on the appended diagram, the fatal cases being distinguished
from the others. All cases occurring between Sept. 29,1859, and Feb. 20, 1860,
in the practice of the workhouse and Bloomsbury Dispensary are there noted. The
cases of the latter institution were much scattered, and have no bearing on the epidemic
in South St. Giles's; There was no death among the smallpox patients of this
dispensary.
On the giving way of the epidemic in South St. Giles's, measures were at once
taken to have the infected houses well cleaned, limewhited, and fumigated with
burning sulphur, and these means appear to have assisted in removing the contagion.
Chapter VII.—The Sanitary Proceedings of the Year.
House Improvement.—The figures of the subjoined table will be found to be
much larger than those of the preceding year. The increase is a great measure
*Two only in the infected neighbourhood. Three other cases in a single family in another
locality do not affect the argument.