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THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH,
FOR THE YEAR 1886.
The great feature in the mortality statistics of this year is the
disappearance of small-pox from the district, as there has not
been a single case reported to me, with the exception of a tramp
who had symptoms of the disease on the day after he was
admitted to the casual ward of the Hackney Union. As the
disease takes several days to manifest itself, it could not have
been contracted in the district, especially as the person came
from Hammersmith on the day of his admission to our Workhouse.
He unfortunately died at the Deptford Hospital before
any further account could be obtained as to his history. There
has not been such a total cessation of this disease since 1858,
when no death was registered. The question now arises, when
may we expect another epidemic in our district? To this I
cannot reply, as previously to 1870 and the existence of the
Small-pox Hospital in our district, its recrudescence every
fourth year was not so marked as in the whole of London, and
the proportion of deaths to population was not so great. How
far the non-use of the Hospital at Homerton for small-pox may
be accompanied in future by a very decided diminution here of
the disease I cannot state, as owing to the increased number of
houses, we are more intimately united with the rest of
the Metropolis than before 1870. That the disease will
return as an epidemic in London next year (1888) I have but
little doubt, and only hope that under altered circumstances we
shall not suffer in so large a proportion as during the last
16 years. Indeed, If disconnection of the interior of the houses