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nature of their illness, and I have little doubt but that they
did so. Luke G., however, failed to tell the doctor that he
had been exposed to the infection of small-pox. Had he
done so, the nature of his illness would have become apparent
: he would have been isolated in hospital, and his wife
and the three children probably would have escaped.
The endemic then, so far at least as the Kensington
cases were concerned, having originated with Maud K, the
question that naturally arose was, How and where did she
contract the disease ? This question I was able to answer confidently,
by stating that it was at the residence of her uncle, a Mr
R., No. 60, Barnsdale Road, in the parish of Paddington. At
this house—as I subsequently learned, from information courteously
supplied by Dr. B., the medical attendant of the several
families living there—a febrile disease, attended with a rash,
had existed for some weeks prior to the date of Maud K.'s
illness ; but without, for a considerable time, exciting suspicion
of small-pox. The earliest sufferers were children of Mrs. W.
(first floor) the first of whom fell ill at about the middle of
August; the appearance of the spots having been preceded by
febrile and other symptoms resembling the premonitory
symptoms of small-pox. The source of infection was not
known. On or about September 4th, one of the children of
Mr. H. (top floor) fell ill with similar symptoms, and another
child subsequently. Mr. H. himself fell ill soon afterwards, and
Dr. B. was called in, on September 14th. Meanwhile, Maud K.'s
Aunt (Mrs. R.) who, with her husband and two young children
occupied the only remaining (or basement) floor, had fallen ill,
on September 7th, with symptoms, local and constitutional,
like those of the other cases. Later, her three-months old
baby was attacked. Dr. B. saw this child on September 25th.
Satisfied that she had small-pox, and confirmed in his
suspicion that the previous illnesses had been modified cases
of the same disease, he notified the case to the Medical Officer
of Health on the 26th. The child, who had not been
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