View report page

58
¬ing London itself, isolated cases of choleraic disease occurred,
some of which proved fatal, there was nothing approaching to
a serious outbreak. It was open to question indeed, whether
all, if the majority, of the cases were cases of Asiatic Cholera.
The disease did not spread; the occurrence of the illnesses
could not be connected with any known importation of cholera
to the respective localities, and the balance of probability
favoured the assumption that the several cases might have
been virulent examples of English Cholera. One such case
occurred in this parish, the sufferer being a sweep, aged 28,
who died after a brief illness. The cause of death as certified
was choleraic diarrhœa. The case stood alone, no other person
in the house having shown any symptoms of a like character.
It was a reassuring feature in regard to the public health of
the Metropolis, and of our own parish, that the mortality
from diarrhœal diseases at the time, was below the corrected
decennial average. A measure of alarm doubtless existed,
but, on the whole, it was felt that the Health Authorities,
central and local, were on the alert ; so that there was, manifestly,
a calmer state of feeling on the subject than in 1892,
when the public were suddenly awakened to the probability
of an invasion of the disease which was causing havoc so near
to our own shores as Hamburgh. The position was one of
watchful expectancy, and of calm preparation for any emergency,
tempered by a reasonable hope that the energetic
measures taken by the several Port Sanitary Authorities (at
their own proper cost!) and by the Medical Officer of the
Local Government Board and his able staff, would suffice to
detect imported cases, and to deal with them on the
spot, so as to protect the country generally from this
dreaded scourge. Provision, I may add, had been made for
the establishment of three ambulance stations in this parish,
viz., at the Parish Infirmary, the Workhouse at Mary Place,
and St. Marylebone Infirmary, Notting Hill, at which institutions,
moreover, about 150 or 160 beds could have been made
available for the sick at a few hours' notice Happily no
occasion arose for testing the adequacy of these preparations.