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9
Smallpox.
I was able to report last year that there had been an almost complete
immunity from smallpox in Bow and Bromley, not a single
death being recorded from that scourge. It was the seventh successive
year in which the disease had been practically absent from London,
where during 1892 there had been only 41 deaths as compared with
8 for 1891, 4 for 1890, and 1 for 1889. On that head the RegistrarGeneral
for the first time passed by this disease without comment in
his annual report. I regret that I am not in a position to report that
the same favourable state of things existed either in London or in my
district of Bow during 1893.
A useful return has been published by the Lancet, giving an
analysis of the sickness and mortality statistics throughout the whole
of London for the year 1893, and it is prepared according to Table B
of the Local Government Board. From this it appears that the total
number of notifications of smallpox in London in 1893 were 2813,
217 being from the Poplar District, or about one-fifteenth of the
whole. The total deaths from smallpox in London reached the large
number of 186, or over four times as many as in 1892. Of these
deaths 12 occurred in the Poplar District, or practically the same
proportion as the District had in the matter of notifications.
In Bow during the year there were 21 such notifications, and in
Bromley during the three months in which that parish was under my
supervision 20. The deaths from this disease only number 1 in Bow.
This occurred in a child under 1 year of age; various members of
the two families who resided in the house in Wendon Street being
attacked. The child was unvaccinated.
The following particulars are taken from my monthly report:—
Nine cases of smallpox occurred in a house in Wendon Street.
First case 8 months, unvaccinated, followed by a mother and infant
of another family sent to Sick Asylum. Disease afterwards developed;
baby was unvaccinated, and died. Other cases were : mother of first