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87
At Cambridge Terrace there were two cases in one house.
The first was treated at home, and the second outbreak was the
result of the first case.
At a house in Elrick Street there were three cases. The first
was reported on April 27th, when it was found that the patient
had been ill for several days. The symptoms had so far disappeared
that it was not possible to decide absolutely whether it
was a case of small-pox or not, a second case was reported on
May 9th and another on May 10th. These latter two cases were
undoubtedly the result of the first case. Both of them might have
been prevented had the first case been reported earlier and
removed at once.
At a house in Latymer Road there were 7 cases. The first
case that occurred was not reported, nor was any medical advice
obtained. The consequence was that six other persons afterwards
caught the disease from this case.
At a house at Anselm Road there were six cases. The first
case was not removed and consequently five other persons contracted
the disease afterwards in the same house. The five latter
cases undoubtedly might have been prevented had the first case
been immediately removed to a hospital when the patient was
first attacked with the disease.
The above statistics point clearly to the unquestionable advantage
obtained by the early removal and proper isolation of
cases of small-pox. We see, on the one hand, that where patients
were at once removed directly they were known to be suffering from
small-pox, almost without exception, no fresh person contracted the
disease in the same house. On the other hand, where cases were not
early removed, or treated at home, in most instances other persons in
the same house caught the complaitit.
TABLE VIII.
The following table shows the number of deaths registered
from small-pox of parishioners belonging to each district of the
Metropolis, during the years 1877-1881 ; the average number of
deaths in that period ; the number of deaths in the year 1881 ;
and the number of deaths registered last year above or below the
average number during the last five years :—