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35
The father's skin was deeply stained with the remains of a
great number of undoubted small-pox pustules. Considering
the case to be still infective, I advised Dr. B. to notify it to
the Medical Officer of Health. He did so forthwith, and the
patient, on Saturday, October 28th, was removed to hospital,
where he was detained for about three weeks. Ultimately
it became admitted on all hands that the baby's illness had
been small-pox (caught from the mother probably) of a
singularly mild description, having regard to the fact that
she had not been vaccinated; and that Dr. B.'s opinion was
correct that the other cases in the house were also small-pox,
highly modified by vaccination. This child's comparative
insusceptibility to small-pox was not a little remarkable. It
has been said that her vaccination, done at the Wharf, did not
"take"; a subsequent operation, by a Public Vaccinator, was
equally unsuccessful, but a third operation, I was informed,
proved successful. I return from this digression to state that
Maud K. had been accustomed to visit her relatives at the house
in Paddington, from whom, beyond doubt, she contracted the
disease, which she transmitted with fatal effect to her father
and others.
But to resume:—In my eleventh monthly report
(dated November 16th) I gave a sketch-plan of the streets,
showing the houses in which the first forty cases had occurred
—as well as certain houses in Paddington and Chelsea
(Kensal District) where there had been cases some of which
undoubtedly belonged to the same outbreak. At that date
22 cases had occurred in Portobello Road, viz., four at No. 412
(where the outbreak began) three at No. 414, two at 416
(these nine cases being intimately connected) three at No.
408, three at 406, two at No. 404, one at 394; all of these
houses being on the East side of the street. On the West
side there had been four cases, viz., one at No. 429, two at
No. 407, and one at No. 405; the last two houses being near
to Lionel Mews, where, at No. 18, there had been one case.