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a further notification of three fresh attacks at an interval of
two days, all from the same house. After this the neighbourhood
was perfectly free from the disease.
On receiving information of the cases the houses were
at once visited and vaccination was advised in the case of all
those that were deemed, judging from the scars, to be
insufficiently protected by vaccination against small pox;
further the premises were at once disinfected as thoroughly as
possible. The result of these protective measures was gratifying
in the extreme, since there was no further spread of the disease,
although the crowded state of the house and locality warranted
the opinion that it would extend considerably beyond the limit
of the one house. We were also able to stop a man in the
house who purveyed cats' meat from going on his usual round,
and who might have been instrumental in spreading the disease
had he continued at work. Besides this I made it a point to
visit the schools where children from the infected house had
been attending previous to the first notification of the disease
and to ascertain from the teachers whether there were any
children ailing in the various class-rooms, and also as to
whether there were any absentees about whose absence there
might be circumstances that would give rise to the idea that it
might be due to the illness of incipient small pox.
In all eight persons were attacked, and their ages varied
from two to forty-four years. Without exception all were
removed to hospital directly they were thought to be suffering
from this disease, and in some cases the removal was effected
before even the characteristic rash had shown itself. According
to the report from the Hospital Ships all those who were so
removed were unvaccinated.
The lesson to be learnt from this little epidemic
undoubtedly is that isolation and vaccination are the means by
which to prevent the extension of the disease. On account of
the isolation arrangements being well carried out the effect of
the large unvaccinated population that exists in the Parish
does not show itself so prominently as it otherwise would, but
I still strongly adhere to the belief that if the isolation should
fail the neglect of vaccination in Camberwell would make itself
very severely felt in the event of an outbreak of small pox.
The increase of diphtheria in the Parish, as in London