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case, 36 years, mild, two faint vaccination marks; and two daughters,
aged 7 years and 4 years, both unvaccinated; father of second case,
30 years; brother of second case, 4 years, unvaccinated; and sister
of second case, 6 years, unvaccinated. Two other children in the
house, aged 11 years and 8 years, had been vaccinated, and escaped
the disease. All the cases were removed to hospital, and the premises
thoroughly disinfected.
As every case was notified, prompt attention was given, and whenever
possible the source of the infection was traced. Of the 21 cases
notified in Bow, 13 were sent to hospital; and of the 20 cases in
Bromley during the first three months, 18 were sent to hospital. In
my report to the Sanitary Committee for February, I asked the approval
of the Committee to communicate with the keepers of all common
lodging houses in the district to furnish information of all suspicious
cases, as it appeared from a circular from the Metropolitan Asylums
Board that the majority of the cases admitted to their institutions were
persons of no fixed abode. On the 20th July the Sanitary Committee
reported on the outbreak of the disease at the Convent in the Bow
Road, where 4 cases occurred. The patients were at once isolated,
the school broken up, and the remaining inmates revaccinated.
Thus, whereas in 1892 we had not a single death from this cause
in Bow or Bromley for the whole year, and only 3 notifications, we
had no less than 20 cases in the first 3 months of 1893 in Bromley;
21 cases in Bow in the 12 months; and 1 death in Bow. These are
facts which demand serious attention, and I desire to emphasise my
remark in connection with this subject in my last annual report, that
"The enforcement of the Vaccination Acts is an important public
duty imposed by the Legislature upon Boards of Guardians, who
according to the strict letter of the law have little if any option in the
matter. Medical testimony of the highest authority is overwhelmingly
in favour of vaccination as a mitigator and preventor of smallpox,
and that with the aid of sanitary science should in the end overcome
the disease."