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46
of room* The Gore Farm Convalescent Small-pox Hospital
was utilized during part of the year for scarlet fever convalescents;
in November, however, in anticipation of a smallpox
epidemic, which did not ensue, it was hurriedly closed,
disinfected, and prepared for its more, legitimate use.
How Disease is Spread.—Several cases occurred in the
parish during the year illustrating modes of spread of scarlet
fever. In the first instance, two children of a coachman living
in a South Kensington Mews having died of the disease, in
hospital, the man's employer informed me that he had reason
for believing that other children living in the same mews, had
had scarlet fever and had not been isolated—in fact, had been
constantly playing in the mews with other children. I visited
the houseandfound two children whowere "peeling" afterscarlet
fever, the mother however averring that this symptom was due to
the children having simultaneously plunged both their hands
into hot water! These children had not only been in the
mews, as alleged, but they had also been attending school. The
parents professed ignorance of the nature of the illness—said,
in fact, that the children had not been ill: no doctor had been
called in. But their story was inconsistent, as the mother also
said that they thought the complaint was measles, although
she admitted that both of the children had suffered from this
disease in 1892. There was evidence, moreover, that the
mother had told at least two persons that her children had
"the fever"—the one being their schoolmistress, who thereupon
excluded them from school; the other a milk-carrier,
who thereupon ceased to leave milk at the house, and removed
*As an illustration of the extent to which the hospital accommodation fell short in
the last eight months of 1893, it may be mentioned that the admissions during that
period were equal to only 38 per cent. of the notified cases of scarlet fever, whereas
during the first four months of the year, when the accommodation sufficed for current
needs, the admissions were equal to 55 per cent. of the notifications