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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health,—1894. 37
Abstract of Four Special Reports dealing- with the
Southwark Salvation Shelter and the
Spread of Small-Pox.
During the first portion of 1893, Southwark. in common with the rest of London,
was visited by an epidemic of small-pox, greater in extent and severity than any that
has visited the metroplis since the year 1885. Many of the cases (already fully
reported) were traced by me to the agency of tramps in the Salvation Army Shelter
situated in the Blackfiiars-Road.
Several of these wanderers, with small-pox spots upon them, walked from the
shelter through the public streets to the crowded out-patient departments of general
hospitals and of Union relief stations. So soon as the nature of this virulent and
highly contagious disease was detected, the patients were isolated in rooms provided
for that purpose, pending the arrival of the ambulance, which subsequently conveyed
them to the small-pox hospital ships.
How many more escaped observation and detection, to spread the loathsome
disease among those unprotected by vaccination and re-vaccination, it is impossible
to estimate.
In January and February, 1893, in accordance with the instructions of your
Health Committee, I wrote to the Local Government Board two letters, in which I
pointed out the serious danger threatening the public health, due to the spread of
small-pox and other catching complaints, through the medium of night shelters. I
also called the Board's attention to the Resolution of your Committee, urging the
necessity of placing Salvation and other similar shelters under the regulations of the
Common Lodging House Acts.
It will be within the memory of your Vestry, that in June, 1893, proceedings were
taken by the Sanitary Authority against the superintendent of the Blackfriars shelter,
for knowingly letting for hire the part called the "penny shelter" directly connected
with, and practically forming part of the "too late " 2d. bunk dormitory, in which it
was alleged that a man had been suffering from a dangerous, infectious disease,
without having it properly disinfected to the satisfaction of a qualified medical
practitioner, as attested by his certificate.
After three adjournments the magistrate found :—
(1.) That there was exposure of a small-pox patient in the shelter.
(2.) That many persons were admitted to the shelter on the same and
following nights.
(3.) That the disinfection alleged to have been carried out in the shelter was
inefficient in the face of a dangerous infectious disease.
(4.) The magistrate decided that there was a letting for hire of part of a house,
and that the medical certificates produced were not in accordance with
the Public Health Act. He fined defendants £20.
The defendants appealed to the High Courts of Justice against this finding, the
magistrate having first stated a case, at the request of the learned counsel for the
defence. In the Court of Appeal, Messrs. Justices Wills and Wright have recently
decided there was not a " letting " of the " Penny Shelter," and have accordingly
reversed the magistrate's decision on that point. The judges remarked that the
superintendent merely harboured or sheltered licensees or guests, which is a very
different thing, legally, from "letting" to lodgers. The question of the legality of
the certificates granted by a doctor on hearsay evidence, and dated back three days,
was not discussed.