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26 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
(2) Female, aet. 54. September 11th. Fulham Workhouse.
A laundry worker in Fulham
Workhouse.
(3) Male, aet. 61, September 12th. Kennington-Road,
A master sculptor. Lambeth.
(4) Male, aet. 60. September 26th. Quinn's-Buildings,
A glass cutter. St. George's, Southwark.
Case 4 was notified to me as one of cholera on Tuesday, September 26th, 1893,
by Dr. Cooper, a gentleman who has had considerable experience of the complaint in
India.
At the request of Dr. Cooper I visited the patient on the afternoon of September
26th, and found him lying in a bed on one of three small rooms opening directly
into each other. The unfortunate, sufferer was then in a dying condition ; his pulse
was imperceptible, his face pinched, he could not speak ; in short, he was in an
extreme state of collapse, and died at 10 o'clock the same night. In addition to the
collapse I noticed that the motions were bloodstained, and I was informed that there
was a complete suppression of urine. The patient appeared to have passed into this
stage after that of urgent vomiting, purging, and cramps, from which, I was told, he
had suffered some few hours previously. From information primarily gained from
the patient's master, his wife, and the superintendent of the cholera-infected " model,"
the following particulars were gleaned:—The patient, a glass-cutter, worked
for a glass insurance company, his workshop consisting of three small rooms opening
into one another, practically forming one room, on the ground-floor of " Model "
buildings in St. Saviours, Southwark.
The patient took up his abode in Quinn's-Buildings, Waterloo Bridge-Road (in
Ward 1) with his wife and two young children which she took in to farm about four
weeks before his illness began. No strangers were subsequently entered as tenants in
the block save one family that came in after the commencement of patient's illness.
Patient's work took him to various districts, both in the inner and outer
metropolitan circles, within the few days immediately preceding his illness. He
had, however, not slept away from home. Patient had, on two occasions, visited a
tavern on business, near a railway station, at Canning Town, one and two weeks
prior to his death. During the same period, he was reported also as having worked
in the neighbourhood of the Victoria Docks. On Thursday, September 21st, patient
took a van to a wholesale house in Christchurch Parish, where he purchased glass.
On Friday, September 22nd, he cut two panes of glass for the keeper of a common
lodging house near King's Cross, and later, on the same day, he measured a new
shop front close to Maryland Point Railway Station.
I visited patient's workshop in St. Saviour's, which proved to be in an insanitary
condition. This fact, together with the need of disinfection, was duly reported by
me to the Medical Officer of Health.
I also made certain personal investigations and enquiries at the wholesale glass
warehouse before alluded to, and visited the common lodging house at King's Cross
accompanied by the police inspector and sergeant in charge of the house.
Of the two w.c.'s placed in the back yard of the lodging house, and very possibly
used by the patient, the water apparatus of one was out of order and gave no flush,
and both were in a dirty condition.
The lodgers were congregated in an underground basement common kitchen,
artificially lighted in the absence of day-light. These facts I communicated to the
Medical Officer of Health of the district within which the lodging house was
situated. I wrote also to the Medical Officer of East Ham.
With regard to the patient, he generally enjoyed good health, and was an
abstemious, hard-working, and careful-living man. He had not been feeling well